Former CDC Director Richard Besser voiced strong disapproval on Sunday regarding President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, describing Kennedy as “cruel” for perpetuating the notion that vaccines are linked to autism.
“This was a question that was asked and addressed decades ago, and to continue to lift that up is a cruel thing to do,” Besser stated during an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”
Besser, currently serving as the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, previously held the role of acting CDC director from January to June 2009.
“We should address chronic diseases — autism is one of those — and spend money trying to understand what are the causes of autism, and how can you address that,” Besser said. “But to keep lifting up the idea that it has something to do with vaccination is really a cruel thing to do.”
Kennedy, a long-time critic of vaccines, is the founder of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense. He stepped down from his leadership position at the organization in 2023 to focus on his presidential campaign.
When questioned about Kennedy’s stance on vaccines — specifically his assurance that he would not ban them — Besser clarified that the concern lies not in banning vaccines outright but in the emphasis on personal choice over public responsibility.
“It’s pushing the idea that vaccines should be something that is totally up to the individual,” Besser explained to Raddatz. “We have a social contract in our country. There are things we do for our own health, but there are things we do that are good for ourselves, our families and our communities, and vaccination falls into that category and having somebody who denies that in that role is extremely dangerous.”
Besser highlighted that Kennedy’s arguments are particularly problematic because they mix fact with fiction, making it harder for people to discern credible information from falsehoods. “It really hard to sort out what things you should follow because they’re based on fact, and which things are not,” he said.
Trump’s announcement of Kennedy’s nomination was unexpected, catching both political figures and health care professionals off guard, despite the president-elect’s campaign promises to give Kennedy a prominent role in public health.
“I am outraged because lives are at stake here,” Besser expressed passionately.
“The head of Health and Human Services touches programs that affect every single life in our country,” he added. “To have someone leading HHS who is one of the biggest deniers of vaccines in our country, would undermine the confidence in that program and likely would cost lives.”
{Matzav.com}