Make America Healthy Again is “a great slogan,” the senator wrote. “The problem is that since coming into office President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, is endangering the health of the American people, now and in the future. He must resign.
This was stated by Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (Independent of Vermont), in an op-ed published Saturday in The New York Times, as calls grew for Kennedy to leave the Department of Health and Human Services, either voluntarily or by force, following the firing of Susan Monarriz, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, is endangering the health of the American people, now and in the future. He must resign.
That was the statement by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee ranking member Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), in an op-ed published Saturday in The New York Times, as calls grew for Kennedy to leave the Department of Health and Human Services, voluntarily or involuntarily, following the firing of Susan Monarriz, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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As Bernie Sanders explained in the Times and in a letter Thursday to Senate Aid Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), requesting a congressional investigation, Monarriz was fired after reportedly refusing “to endorse her dangerous policies.” Her departure led to resignations and a strike by employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), now headed by Kennedy aide and biotech investor Jim O’Neill.
Sanders and other lawmakers, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a polio survivor and the only Republican to vote against Kennedy’s confirmation in February, have long warned of the consequences of giving Robert Kennedy Jr. a key health policy post in President Donald Trump’s second administration.
“Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration keep repeating that they want to ‘make America healthy,'” Sanders emphasized Saturday. “It’s a great slogan. I endorse it. The problem is that since taking office, President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite.”
“Despite overwhelming opposition from the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his long-standing crusade against vaccines and his defense of conspiracy theories, repeatedly dismissed by scientific experts,” the senator wrote. “It’s absurd to have to say this in 2025, but vaccines are safe and effective. That, of course, is not my opinion. Far more importantly, it is the overwhelming consensus of the medical and scientific communities.”
Sanders cited recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the World Health Organization, and criticized Kennedy’s comments on autism, the COVID-19 and polio vaccines, and vaccination in general.
“The reality is that Secretary Kennedy capitalized on vaccine distrust and built his career on it. Now, as head of HHS, he is using his authority to wage open war on science, public health, and truth itself,” he wrote, warning that “in the short term, it will be harder for Americans to get lifesaving vaccines,” including against COVID.
However, “COVID is just the beginning. Mr. Kennedy’s next target could be the childhood immunization schedule, the list of vaccines recommended to protect against diseases like measles, chickenpox, and polio,” the senator continued. He also sounded the alarm about the secretary “cutting funding for research that could help us prepare for the next pandemic.”
Sanders, a staunch supporter of Medicare for All, also took aim at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump last month.
“The American health care system is already dysfunctional and extremely expensive. Yet the Trump administration will deprive approximately 15 million people of their health insurance by cutting more than $1 trillion in spending from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,” he stressed. “This reduction is also expected to lead to the closure or reduction of services at hundreds of nursing homes, hospitals, and community health centers. As a result of the cuts to the Affordable Care Act, health insurance costs will skyrocket for millions of Americans. This is not ‘Making America Healthy Again.'”
“Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger, and he must resign,” Sanders concluded. “In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a CDC director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people, not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories.”