Members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s household are calling for him to step down as well being secretary following a contentious congressional listening to this previous week, throughout which the Trump Cupboard official confronted bipartisan questioning about his tumultuous management of federal well being companies.
Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, and his nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, issued scathing statements Friday, calling for him to resign as head of the Well being and Human Providers Division.
The calls from the distinguished Democratic household got here a day after Kennedy needed to defend his latest efforts to tug again COVID-19 vaccine suggestions and fireplace high-level officers on the Facilities for Illness Management at a three-hour Senate listening to.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American,” Joseph P. Kennedy III mentioned in a submit on X. The previous congressman added: “None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting.” His aunt echoed these claims, saying “medical decisions belong in the hands of trained and licensed professionals, not incompetent and misguided leadership.”
This isn’t the primary time Kennedy has been the topic of his household’s ire. A number of of his family members had objected to his presidential run within the final marketing campaign, whereas others wrote to senators earlier this yr, calling for them to reject his nomination to be Trump’s well being secretary as a consequence of views they thought of disqualifying on life-saving vaccines.
Kennedy, a longtime chief within the anti-vaccine motion, has spent the final seven months implementing his once-niche, grassroots motion to the best degree of America’s public well being system. The sweeping modifications to the companies tasked with public well being coverage and scientific analysis have resulted in hundreds of layoffs and the remaking of vaccine pointers.
The strikes — a few of which contradict assurances he made throughout his affirmation hearings — have rattled medical groupsand officers in a number of Democratic-led states, which have responded with their very own vaccine recommendation.
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