Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday that he is addressing problems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amid a wave of high-profile resignations following the ouster of the agency’s director.
In an interview on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” Kennedy said he was not surprised that four top CDC officials resigned after the White House fired Susan Monarez, who was sworn into the post just a month earlier.
“No, it has not caught us by surprise,” Kennedy said in the interview. “Again, I cannot comment on personnel issues, but the agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it — and we are fixing it — and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Kennedy told Monarez to resign or be fired on Monday over tensions around vaccine policy. After Monarez refused to resign on Wednesday, the White House terminated her from her position.
Kennedy said on Thursday that it would be “inappropriate” to comment on personnel issues but said Trump “has very, very ambitious hopes for CDC right now,” adding, “The CDC has problems.”
Kennedy argued that the CDC has placed too great an emphasis on fluoridation and vaccines, as well as abortion.
“So we need to look at the priorities of the agency,” he said, “if there’s really a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency, and we need strong leadership that will go in there, and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions.”
HHS published a list of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” for the 20th century, including “vaccination,” “family planning” and “fluoridation of drinking water.”
The list also includes “motor-vehicle safety,” “safety workplaces,” “control of infectious diseases,” “decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke,” “safer and healthier foods,” “healthier mothers and babies” and “recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard.”
It released an updated list in 2011 for the first decade of the 21st century, and it no longer includes “family planning” or “fluoridation of drinking water.”
Those achievements were replaced with “cancer prevention” and “childhood lead poisoning prevention.” The remaining achievements were similar to those listed for the 20th century.
The CDC has an abortion surveillance program that tracks the number of legally-permitted abortions in the country, and has done so since 1969.
