More than 1,000 current and former workers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have called for Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to step down from his position. The workers sent a letter to Kennedy and members of Congress on Wednesday, saying his leadership has put Americans’ health at risk.
The letter comes after a difficult week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Trump administration fired CDC Director Susan Monarez after less than a month in her position. Four other senior CDC officials left their jobs in protest shortly after. According to sources familiar with the situation, Monarez was removed from her position because she refused to sign off on new vaccine restrictions that top HHS officials wanted.
According to Newsweek, the HHS employees wrote in their letter, “We warn the President, Congress, and the Public that Secretary Kennedy’s actions are compromising the health of this nation, and we demand Secretary Kennedy’s resignation.” The workers said if Kennedy refuses to step down, they want President Trump and Congress to appoint someone new whose experience and qualifications would ensure health decisions are based on peer-reviewed science rather than politics.
Growing petition gains thousands of signatures
The organizing group Save HHS started a petition that has grown to more than 6,000 signatures total, including 887 from HHS workers. The petition launched last Friday and has continued to gain support from both current and former federal health workers. Many employees who signed the most recent letter did so anonymously because they feared losing their jobs or facing other punishment for speaking out.
This new letter builds on an earlier one from last month. More than 750 HHS workers had written to Kennedy after a shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta on August 8 that killed a police officer. In that letter, they asked Kennedy to stop spreading what they called inaccurate health information and to guarantee the safety of HHS workers. The staff had given Kennedy until September 2 to respond, but he never answered them directly.
Kennedy has made several controversial decisions that upset the health workers. These include removing all COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations without explaining the data behind the decision. He also replaced the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel with new members, many of whom have expressed vaccine-skeptic views. Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who Kennedy chose as acting CDC director, has promoted unproven COVID treatments and criticized the CDC during the pandemic.
HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon defended Kennedy’s actions, saying the CDC has been broken for a long time and needs sustained reform. Nixon said Kennedy has accomplished more than any health secretary in history in fighting chronic disease. Kennedy also wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, saying Americans no longer trust the CDC and that he wants to restore its focus on infectious disease and rebuild trust through transparency.
Several members of Congress have called for Kennedy to resign or be fired. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in The New York Times that Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger and must resign. Senator Patty Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro have also demanded that Kennedy be removed from office. Kennedy’s leadership has already caused major disruptions at HHS, including widespread layoffs that Kennedy himself admitted were partly mistakes. Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance on Thursday about the administration’s 2026 health care agenda.
