Statement from Defend Public Health on Senate Confirmation of RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The coordinating committee of Defend Public Health, an all-volunteer network of physicians and other healthcare workers, scientists and public health advocates, issued the following statement in response to today’s U.S. Senate vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services:

“The Senate today confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the most unqualified person ever chosen to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, but the fight to preserve and expand compassionate, science-based health policy does not end with his confirmation: This fight has only begun. We hope Mr. Kennedy will reconsider his embrace of disinformation and conspiracy theories, but if he follows through on the ideas he’s embraced in recent years, many will suffer and die, and the senators who voted to confirm him will have blood on their hands.

“The HHS secretary represents just one piece of a very large federal health and research apparatus. The Trump administration has been attacking science, hiding data and destroying compassionate, life-enhancing public health policies on many fronts, and we will continue to oppose these potentially deadly actions every way we can.”