United States (US) Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr should promote public confidence in vaccines or be fired, according to Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, who has been the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Injuries since 2018. 

“Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it,” wrote Bloomberg in a hard-hitting opinion piece published in Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

“The greatest danger in elevating him to HHS secretary was always that he would use his position to undermine public confidence in vaccines, which would lead to needless suffering and even death. And so it has come to pass,” said Bloomberg, in one of the hardest-hitting critiques of Kennedy’s six-month term from a global health leader.

“Before this year, no one in the US had died from measles in a decade. This year, three people have died, two of them children. Yet Kennedy downplayed the outbreak, saying it was ‘not unusual’, “ Bloomberg said, blasting Kennedy’s failure to use his position to urge parents to vaccinate their children against measles.

“Some 1,300 cases of measles have now been reported this year, with children accounting for two-thirds of them. More than 160 people have been hospitalized — and survival does not guarantee a full recovery. Measles can lead to pneumonia and worse, including brain swelling and permanent disability.”

The latest report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records  1,319 measles cases in 40 states, with 92% of these in people who are either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Children under the age of five make up the biggest group of people hospitalised as a result of measles.

Bloomberg said that other infectious diseases could also make a comeback under Kennedy, who has fired scientists, cut research and “fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which recommends the vaccines Americans should get.”

New advisory council members appointed by Kennedy include  “a variety of people without significant expertise in immunology, including those in the anti-vaccine movement — which promises to make the unfolding disaster even worse”.

Bloomberg, who initially ran for mayor of New York City as a Republican in 2001, reserved particular criticism for the Republican Senators, including medical doctor Bill Cassidy, who confirmed Kennedy as HHS Secretary.

Republican Senators need to ‘constrain Kennedy’s deadly actions’

Cassidy’s own question during Kennedy’s confirmation hearing provides the clear summary of the current situation, added Bloomberg.

Cassidy asked: “Does a 70-year-old man who has spent decades criticizing vaccines, and who’s financially vested in finding fault with vaccines — can he change his attitudes and approach now that he’ll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States?”

“The answer was always obvious,” said Bloomberg. “Kennedy never gave any indication that he would be changing his stripes, but Cassidy and his colleagues deceived themselves into thinking otherwise — or, worse, they knew better and simply buckled to political pressure, placing their own political careers above the lives of their constituents.”

“Senate Republicans have made this mess, and they need to clean it up,” said Bloomberg. “They have a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of Kennedy, and they have a moral responsibility to do everything possible to constrain Kennedy’s deadly actions — or force him out.

“That should include demanding that the White House pressure Kennedy to start promoting faith in vaccines, including by appointing more qualified people to the vaccine panel — or fire him.”

He concluded that “making America healthy again starts with bringing Kennedy to heel — or sending him packing”.

“Until Senate Republicans summon the courage to do that, more Americans will get severely sick and die — and Republicans will suffer the backlash at the polls.”

Bloomberg has poured millions of dollars of his considerable fortune into funding philanthropic efforts to combat tobacco use, eradicate polio, and address obesity, road safety, maternal health, and drowning.