On August 30, 2025, Senator Bernie Sanders took his concerns public, penning a forceful op-ed in The New York Times that called for the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The move came after a tumultuous month in which the nation’s public health agencies were rocked by high-profile firings, mass resignations, and a growing sense of crisis among both medical professionals and the public at large.
The controversy began to boil over when Kennedy, a longtime and outspoken opponent of vaccines, fired Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), less than a month into her tenure. According to Reuters, Monarez refused to implement new limitations on vaccine availability that Kennedy had urged—restrictions she argued flew in the face of established scientific evidence. Her dismissal set off a chain reaction: four other senior CDC officials resigned in protest, and hundreds of CDC employees staged a walkout at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters in solidarity with their departing leaders.
Sanders, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate’s health committee and has long opposed Kennedy’s confirmation, minced no words in his essay. He accused Kennedy of “endangering the health of the American people now and into the future,” writing, “He must resign.” Sanders argued that Kennedy’s actions at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) represented a full-blown assault on science and public trust. “Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration tell us, over and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a great slogan. I agree with it. The problem is that since coming into office President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite,” Sanders wrote, as reported by The Guardian.
It’s not just the firings that have drawn Sanders’ ire. In the same week, Kennedy disbanded the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and halted nearly $500 million in federal funding earmarked for mRNA vaccine development. Sanders argued in his op-ed that these moves “undermine scientific integrity, disrupt vaccine development, and threaten Americans’ access to life-saving healthcare.” He pointed to the resignations of senior CDC officials as a clear signal that Kennedy’s leadership is incompatible with the responsibilities of HHS. Sanders warned that dismantling vaccine advisory structures and defunding research could make the United States dangerously vulnerable to future outbreaks.
“Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts,” Sanders wrote, as cited by Reuters. He didn’t stop there. Sanders noted that Kennedy has absurdly claimed “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and pointed out that one of Kennedy’s main cited experts had lost his medical license and had his study retracted from a medical journal. “The reality is that Secretary Kennedy has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines. Now, as head of [the Department of Health and Human Services] he is using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself,” Sanders continued in the New York Times op-ed.
Public health experts and agency staffers have echoed these concerns. Over 750 current and former employees at U.S. health agencies signed a letter condemning Kennedy as an “existential threat to public health.” The letter accused the health secretary of being “complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information,” according to The Guardian.
The turbulence at the CDC and HHS comes at a particularly fraught moment for public health in America. Earlier in August, a deadly shooting occurred at the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters. A 30-year-old gunman, reportedly influenced by misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, fired more than 180 rounds into the buildings, killing a police officer before dying by suicide. The gunman’s father told reporters that his son had struggled with mental health issues and believed—falsely—that the Covid-19 vaccine was making him sick. The incident has heightened anxieties about the real-world consequences of medical misinformation and the erosion of trust in public health institutions.
Kennedy’s own public statements have only fueled the controversy. On August 27, he made headlines for telling reporters that he saw children in airports whom he diagnosed as “overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation,” based solely on their faces and body movements—a claim that baffled doctors and drew sharp criticism from the medical community, as reported by Reuters.
Since being nominated by President Donald Trump and sworn in as health secretary in February 2025, Kennedy has made no secret of his skepticism toward vaccines. He has promoted healthy eating, natural foods, and exercise, but also repeatedly advanced theories about vaccines and other medical issues that mainstream scientists and doctors have labeled as conspiratorial and unfounded. In a congressional hearing in May, Kennedy emphasized, “I do not think Americans should ever take medical advice from me.” Yet, his policies and public remarks have had sweeping repercussions for the nation’s health agencies and their ability to carry out their missions.
Sanders warned that Kennedy’s next target might be the childhood immunization schedule, which includes vaccines for diseases like measles, chickenpox, and polio—diseases that have been virtually wiped out thanks to safe and effective immunizations. “The danger here is that diseases that have been virtually wiped out because of safe and effective vaccines will resurface and cause enormous harm,” Sanders cautioned in his op-ed. He also pointed out that the Trump administration’s recent moves have made it harder for Americans—especially healthy younger adults and children—to access Covid-19 vaccines, increasing bureaucracy, doctor’s visits, and out-of-pocket costs.
Rare bipartisan pushback has emerged in Congress, with lawmakers expressing alarm at the firing of Monarez, the resignations at the CDC, and steep budget cuts to public health work. Sanders’ intervention signals urgent congressional scrutiny of executive health policy, highlighting deep divisions over vaccine strategy, public trust, and the appropriate role of science in governance. He called on Congress to hold HHS accountable for the upheaval, stressing that political ideology must not override science in protecting public health and ensuring pandemic preparedness.
As of press time, Kennedy and his team have not responded to requests for comment on the mounting criticism. The turmoil at America’s leading health agencies underscores a moment of reckoning for public health leadership, with the stakes—according to Sanders and many in the medical community—nothing less than the safety and wellbeing of millions of Americans.
With the nation’s public health infrastructure at a crossroads, the coming weeks may determine whether scientific expertise or political ideology will guide America’s response to future health crises.
