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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Dr. Josh Green is the governor of Hawaii. Before being elected governor in 2022, he worked as an emergency room doctor and family physician in Hawaii for over 20 years.\n<\/p>\n \n As a father, a physician and a governor, it is my responsibility to protect every community in my state \u2013 especially the most vulnerable \u2013 from threats to their health and safety, and to advocate for the public health of the entire country.\n <\/p>\n \n That is why I am making an appeal to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign as secretary of Health and Human Services. Mr. Kennedy\u2019s actions as our country\u2019s chief public health officer are not just irresponsible and misguided; they are dangerous. I urge him to step aside now before more damage is done to our health care system, more lives are put at risk and more American children die as a result of his policies.\n <\/p>\n \n In January, I issued a public warning<\/a> that if Mr. Kennedy were confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services, \u201che would jeopardize half a century of progress and success gained by the United States as a result of vaccination programs. Too much depends on our commitment to truth and the lifesaving power of vaccines to entrust Mr. Kennedy with the direction of these programs. Our children\u2019s lives depend on it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That warning was based on my firsthand experience during an outbreak of measles in Samoa in 2019 \u2013 an outbreak that infected over 5,000 people and killed 83 \u2013 after misinformation spread by anti-vaccine activists including Mr. Kennedy and his organization eroded public trust in vaccines, lowered vaccination rates across the country and led directly to the devastating outbreak.\n <\/p>\n \n The public warning I gave in January has proved to be heartbreakingly prescient.\n <\/p>\n \n Right now, America is suffering the worst measles outbreak in a generation. In 2000, the World Health Organization declared measles eliminated in the United States, a public health triumph that has been undone in less than eight months under the disastrous leadership of Secretary Kennedy.\n <\/p>\n \n Over 1,400 measles cases have been confirmed this year in more than 40 states. Many people have been hospitalized, and several have died. Entire school systems have shut down. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued travel advisories for several domestic regions for the first time in decades. Parents are terrified, doctors are overwhelmed, and public confidence in our nation\u2019s health leadership has collapsed.\n <\/p>\n \n This did not happen by accident. It has been the direct result of Mr. Kennedy\u2019s policy decisions \u2013 misguided, dangerous and ideologically driven actions that have crippled America\u2019s ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks.\n <\/p>\n \n Secretary Kennedy\u2019s reaction to the rapidly spreading outbreak included recommending unproven, fringe remedies over proven medical prevention. He touted cod liver oil, vitamins, steroids and antibiotics while casting doubt on MMR vaccine, which the medical community recommends as the first line of defense against measles and which has been found safe and effective by the FDA since 1971.\n <\/p>\n \n This kind of irresponsible rhetoric during an outbreak not only erodes public trust and contradicts established science, it endangers lives. By failing to prioritize and to urge vaccination, Mr. Kennedy has allowed measles to rage across the country, spreading faster and farther, and putting more of our children\u2019s lives at risk.\n <\/p>\n Undermining scientific progress and public trust in the CDC<\/p>\n \n Secretary Kennedy\u2019s anti-vaccine beliefs have set us back years in our fight against other deadly diseases.\n <\/p>\n \n In May, he canceled<\/a> a nearly $600 million contract to develop a vaccine against bird flu \u2013 a disease which experts fear could become the next global pandemic \u2013 and two months later, he canceled<\/a> nearly $500 million in grants and contracts to develop mRNA vaccines, falsely claiming that these vaccines are not effective against respiratory illnesses like Covid and flu.\n <\/p>\n \n Mr. Kennedy has also unleashed turmoil and crisis at the CDC, marked by abrupt firings, mass resignations and the sidelining of scientific expertise.\n <\/p>\n \n In June, Mr. Kennedy dismissed<\/a> all 17 members of the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing them with a rubber-stamp panel for his ideology, including several known anti-vaccine activists.\n <\/p>\n \n In August, less than a month after she was confirmed as CDC director, Dr. Susan Monarez was terminated<\/a> for resisting Mr. Kennedy\u2019s push to restrict vaccine access. Her firing triggered the resignations of other senior officials who refused to bow to political interference, warning that Mr. Kennedy was politicizing public health and endangering the most vulnerable.\n <\/p>\n
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