RFK Jr. says CDC has lost public trust, outlines detailed rebuild plan

The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said on Tuesday that the American public had lost confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and described his plan to reconstruct the confidence in an editorial of the Wall Street Journal.

Kennedy has blamed decades of bureaucracy, politicized science and “mission flucture” for eroding the main role of the CDC to protect Americans from infectious diseases and to waste public confidence.

Kennedy underlined the CDC response to COVID-19 as an example of dysfunction which “produced an irrational policy” and has eroded confidence in the agency.

“Fabric masks on toddlers, 6-foot arbitrary distancing, boosters for healthy children, prolonged school closings, economies locking and the abolition of low-cost therapy in favor of experimental and ineffective drugs,” he wrote. “The toll was devastating.”

More than 1,000 HHS workers require Kennedy’s resignation to the director of the CDC director and agency changes

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited the “disastrous” pandemic response of the CDC as one of the reasons why the Americans lose confidence in the agency. (Images Andrew Harnik / Getty)

Although some can see the agency’s missteps during the pandemic as a punctual error, Kennedy said that this failure was “no anomaly”, citing a drop in life expectancy and a decrease in public confidence as proof.

“Confidence collapsed: only a third of health workers participated in the Booster Fall 2023-24 Booster program, and less than 10% of children under the age of 12 received boosters in 2024-25. The American people no longer believe that the CDC has their interest,” he wrote.

Bernie Sanders calls RFK JR. To resign as secretary of the HHS on vaccination policies: “Rally the American people”

At the operational level, the HHS secretary criticized the allowance and the allocation of the CDC budget. He tore the agency to make half of his total budget supports his infectious disease mission and for the fact that less than 1 out of 10 employees is epidemiologists – that he blame for the “disastrous” pandemic response of the CDC.

The Campus des Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is observed in Atlanta on Wednesday June 25, 2025. (Photo mike stewart / ap)

Despite his strong criticisms, Kennedy expressed hope that the agency could be restored to its former efficiency. He noted that the CDC’s response to an epidemic of measles this year showed how the agency can “act quickly with precision when it is guided by science and released from ideology”.

Kennedy underlined some of the measures already taken by the Trump administration to tackle problems with an impact on the CDC, such as the replacement of managers who resisted the reform and the elimination of conflicts of interest and bureaucratic complacency.

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Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has detailed some of the ways that the Trump administration is already working to improve public confidence in the CDC. (Getty Images)

“Firstly, the CDC must restore public confidence-and this restoration has started. It will not stop as long as public health institutions again serve people with transparency, honesty and integrity,” he concluded.

Fox News Digital contacted the CDC for additional comments.

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More than 1,000 current and former employees of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS) signed a letter calling Kennedy to resign on Wednesday.

The employees cited the recent Éviction by Kennedy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez. They also accused Kennedy of appointing “political ideologists” to the posts of authority.

This followed nine former interim directors of the CDC who wrote in the New York Times on Monday that Kennedy’s management endangered all Americans, accusing him of minimizing vaccines and focusing on unproven treatments.

HHS did not respond to a request for comments.