Dear MoveOn member,
Laura from Voices of Health Care Action again. Wednesday is RFK Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing to decide if the Senate committee will advance his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). His nomination rightfully faces mounting opposition from across political spectrums for his dangerous anti-vaccination beliefs, his inexperience and inability to successfully run such a large government agency handling health care for hundreds of millions of Americans, and his inconsistency when it comes to reproductive health care. But with Republicans set on advancing every single one of President Donald Trump’s unpopular Cabinet nominees, we have to keep up the public pressure and urge the Senate to block his nomination.
In 2023, RFK Jr. wrote that “[t]here is virtually no science assessing the overall health effects of the vaccination schedule or its component vaccines.”1 This is not only scary—it’s completely baseless.
Let’s be clear: Vaccines have successfully eradicated smallpox, nearly eradicated polio, and have dramatically reduced mortality rates for diseases like the measles.2 The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated at least 154 million lives have been saved globally due to immunization efforts.3 But President Donald Trump directing the U.S. to exit WHO and nominating a notorious anti-vaxxer like RFK Jr. to lead the HHS threatens the progress we’ve made here and globally when it comes to public health.
And it’s not just his views on vaccines that are dangerous. It’s also reported that RFK Jr. has told close Trump allies that he will restore anti-abortion policies from the first Trump administration—putting privacy laws and the right to access to abortion pills at risk.4 RFK Jr., who has been inconsistent in his stance on abortion, seems to be falling in line with the Trump administration and extreme anti-abortion zealots determined to help pave RFK Jr.’s path to power as long as he delivers on their unpopular agenda.5
–Laura Packard, Voices of Health Care Action
P.S. See my email from earlier this month to read more about why RFK Jr. is unfit to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Sources:
1. “RFK Jr. faces mounting bipartisan criticism,” The Hill, January 23, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5101469-rkf-jr-hhs-bipartisan-opposition/
2. “Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999 Impact of Vaccines Universally Recommended for Children–United States, 1990-1998,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), April 2, 1999
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056803.htm
3. “Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years,” World Health Organization, April 24, 2024
https://www.who.int/news/item/24-04-2024-global-immunization-efforts-have-saved-at-least-154-million-lives-over-the-past-50-years
4. “Anti-abortion groups have 2 asks. RFK Jr. is listening.” Politico, November 20, 2024
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/20/anti-abortion-rfk-jr-00190552
5. Ibid.
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