Kennedy's leadership puts all of us in danger

On its website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes itself as “the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health.”

Among its missions: preventing and fighting disease, assessing and responding to new health threats, promoting science and medicine, and protecting Americans — especially through vaccination — from illness and death.

Right now, none of that is happening.

Instead, under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC has become home to chaos, uncertainty and confusion, a place where doubt is sowed and leadership is missing.

That puts all of us in danger.

None of this should come as a surprise. Kennedy has been a known critic of vaccines and science. Those who confirmed him knew what they were getting. Now, fears have become reality. HHS canceled nearly $500 million in key research. Hundreds of CDC employees, along with members of a key vaccine advisory panel, were fired. Most recently, Kennedy fired former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who said Kennedy told her to rubber stamp his new panel’s recommendations without vetting and called Kennedy’s actions “sabotage.” Since then, other top officials resigned.

VACCINATIONS IN TURMOIL

Meanwhile, vaccination research, approval and administration have been thrown into turmoil. The Food and Drug Administration approved COVID-19 vaccines for those 65 and older, along with others with underlying health conditions. Some pharmacies began to require prescriptions for anyone who sought the booster. But even after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order eliminating that prescription requirement, pharmacists in New York still have been confused and unclear as to who can get the vaccine. That uncertainty all stems from the lack of clear, broad federal guidance. The best course of action would be to allow anyone who wants a COVID-19 vaccine to get one. It should be that simple — but thanks to the unrest in our public health system, it’s not. That leaves senior citizens, parents and others who want the vaccine with more questions than answers — and it could result in a more severe and dangerous COVID resurgence.

Kennedy’s newly constituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which now includes several vaccine skeptics or opponents, will be meeting this week. The panel is supposed to discuss multiple vaccines, including those for COVID, hepatitis B, and measles, mumps and rubella. There’s talk the group could upend additional vaccination requirements, or reconsider the childhood vaccination schedule. Even that possibility is a worrisome marker. Also concerning: published reports that indicate HHS could attempt to link using Tylenol during pregnancy to autism. Similar to long-debunked connections between vaccination and autism, there’s no scientific evidence to back up such a claim.

In his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month, Kennedy only provided additional reason for concern. He claimed he fired Monarez because she wasn’t trustworthy. But it’s Kennedy whom we can’t trust. Kennedy refused to say vaccines were safe and effective or admit the COVID vaccine saved lives, suggested we don’t know how many people died from COVID, and showed how little he knows and understands about his agency’s work. He was combative and angry; his testimony relied on theatrics, rather than science.

CUTS HIT 9/11 RESEARCH

The mayhem has filtered into other areas of public health, too. Since Kennedy took over HHS, first responders and others suffering from illnesses due to the toxic fumes in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks haven’t been able to get the research, care, treatment or even communication they deserve. That’s due to cuts and directives coming from HHS and the CDC, which oversee the World Trade Center Health Program.

The consequences are dire: Kennedy’s leadership of the nation’s public health network threatens the nation’s public health. It begins with seeds of doubt and grows into efforts to make it easier to get an exemption to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren. Even worse, there is momentum to do away with those requirements altogether, as Florida just did. Those seeds of skepticism grow, too, into erroneous claims that vaccination is harmful — resulting in a less vaccinated population that will be more susceptible to disease. They also mean public policies that cancel research funding, leaving a nation vulnerable to the unrestrained emergence of new diseases or pandemics and no effective ways to fight them. Anti-vaccine advocates consider Kennedy their best hope. But for babies, young children, the elderly and the immunocompromised, Kennedy is an unacceptable risk.

There’s only one real answer here: President Donald Trump must fire Kennedy. Trump understands his own successful Operation Warp Speed. Kennedy’s unwillingness to support that effort is a repudiation of Trump himself. If Trump doesn’t act, the Senate must. It’s telling that several Republican senators, including Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Barrasso, both doctors, and Sen. Thom Tillis, finally critiqued and questioned Kennedy during his recent hearing. Now, the Senate should use every lever, from funding to confirmations, to stop Kennedy. The House Republican majority must exert their oversight, too. LI House members Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino should speak out against Kennedy. If they don’t, they must admit they, too, are vaccine skeptics.

Last year, Trump said Kennedy could “go wild” on health care. It’s time to stop the wilding before more people get sick or die.