Over 1,000 HHS employees ask Congress, Trump to depose RFK
Two days after nine former directors of the CDC penned an open letter admonishing the policies of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another letter is calling for his resignation—this one signed by more than 1,000 former and current HHS employees.
On Wednesday, a group calling itself “Save HHS” sent the letter to both Kennedy and the U.S. Congress, where the undersigned warn lawmakers, President Donald Trump and the public that “Secretary Kennedy’s actions are compromising the health of this nation.”
The list of grievances in this new communication mirrors what was said by the former CDC directors. The current and former HHS employees expressed dismay over the politically motivated firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, PhD, and the subsequent cascade of resignations that followed.
Further, the letter accuses Kennedy of violating Trump’s executive order on “Restoring Gold Standard Science in America,” which called for federal healthcare agencies to be evidence-based in their decision-making and eliminate all conflicts of interest.
The 1,040 people who signed the letter said they believe HHS has now abandoned those stated values in favor of “partisan politics.”
“Should he decline to resign, we call upon [Trump and Congress] to appoint a new Secretary of HHS, one whose qualifications and experience ensure that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science,” the letter reads. “We expect those in leadership to act when the health of Americans is at stake.”
Those who signed on to the call for Kennedy’s removal are representatives of several HHS sub-agencies, including major divisions such as the CDC, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Second letter since Atlanta shooting
This open letter is the second one sent by Save HHS. In August, the organization released a statement calling on Kennedy to do more to protect public health officials in light of the Aug. 8 shooting at the CDC offices in Atlanta, which left one police officer dead.
That letter now has over 6,800 signatories who work in healthcare, with at least 887 being former or current employees of HHS.
In response, HHS released a statement to CNN accusing Save HHS of malicious intent.
“Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy,” an HHS spokesperson said.
The full text of both open letters can be found by clicking here.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.