Dozens of Nobel Prize Winners Urge Senators to Reject RFK Jr.
A group of 75 Nobel Prize winners have issued an open letter calling on members of the Senate to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to become Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences,” the laureates write, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.
Richard Roberts, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993, told the Times that there there are some who will read this and think, ‘Well, we really do want to protect the health of our citizens […] They didn’t elect us so that we could kill them.'”
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominating Kennedy to lead the HHS by has raised alarm bells across multiple fields, primarily those working in the medical profession. The vaccine conspiracy theorist has a long track record peddling junk science. In 2013, Kennedy called for vaccine scientists to be jailed during an autism conference, and he has falsely accused vaccine research of being the cause of diseases like HIV, Spanish Flu, and Lyme Disease. He has also railed against antidepressants, claimed that man-made chemicals are “raining down on our children” and causing “very profound sexual changes in them,” and claimed WiFi causes cancer without providing evidence.
Kennedy has threatened to fire large swatches of the federal government’s health care and scientific workforce, accusing them of waging a “war on public health.”
The letter notes Kennedy’s “lack of credentials or relevant experience in medicine, science, public health or administration,” as well as how he “has been an opponent of many health-protecting and live-saving vaccines, such as those that prevent measles and polio.”
“The leader of DHHS should continue to nurture and improve — not to threaten — these important and highly respected institutions and their employees,” the letter continues.
More from Rolling Stone
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
