Bernie Sanders (left), and Robert F Kennedy Jr.
US Senator Bernie Sanders has joined calls for US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to step down, following recent turmoil in American health agencies.In an opinion piece in the New York Times on Saturday, the Vermont senator said Kennedy was “endangering the health of the American people now and into the future,” adding: “He must resign.”Sanders wrote: “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.”He cited the White House’s dismissal of Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the resignation of four senior CDC officials this week after Monarez “refused to act as a rubber stamp” for Kennedy’s “dangerous policies.”Sanders said: “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.”He continued: “Against the overwhelming body of evidence within medicine and science, what are secretary Kennedy’s views? … He has absurdly claimed that ‘there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective’ … Who supports secretary Kennedy’s views? Not credible scientists and doctors. One of his leading ‘experts’ that he cites to back up his bogus claims on autism and vaccines had his medical license revoked and his study retracted from the medical journal that published it.”Sanders also pointed to “our broken health care system” and warned that Kennedy’s stance against vaccines could make it harder for people in the US to access essential immunizations. He added that Kennedy’s next focus may be the childhood immunization schedule, which recommends vaccines to protect children against diseases such as measles, chickenpox and polio.
