In the ten months since his confirmation as United States Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has regularly made headlines. Last month, he instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to abandon its official position that vaccines do not cause autism.
An article published this month intricately chronicles the radical transformation of the CDC from “a fun place to work” in early January to a dark, empty shell marked by “a lot of crying”, multiple sackings and high-profile resignations.
One of the latter was the September dismissal of the agency’s director, Dr Susan Monarez, after she refused Kennedy’s order to fire CDC vaccine experts “without cause” – sparking the resignations of the chief medical officer and the vaccine director. In protest, hundreds of staff rallied, holding signs that read “SCIENCE NOT CONSPIRACIES” and “YOU ARE HEROES”.
