policy
More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have done it signed a letter Calls on senators not to verify President-elect Donald Trump's selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to go the Department of Health and Human Services.
According to Richard Roberts, the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine who helped draft the letter, the letter, obtained by The New York Times, marks the primary time in recent memory that Nobel Prize winners have united against a Cabinet decision have. The group tries to remain out of politics each time possible, he said.
But the confirmation of Kennedy, a staunch critic of conventional medicine who was hostile to the scientists and agencies he would oversee, was a threat that the Nobel laureates couldn’t ignore, Roberts said.
“These political attacks on science are very damaging,” he said. “You have to stand up and protect it.”
The honorees questioned whether Kennedy, who they said had “lack of qualifications” in medicine, science and administration, was suitable to steer the department answerable for protecting public health and funding biomedical research.
“Mr. Putting Kennedy in charge of DHHS would endanger public health and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences,” the letter warned.
If confirmed, Kennedy's opposition to established public health tools comparable to vaccines and drinking water fluoridation would pose a risk to the country's well-being, the letter said.
The laureates condemned Kennedy's sponsorship Conspiracy theories. Kennedy has falsely linked vaccinations to autism, rejected established science showing that HIV causes AIDS, and suggested, without evidencethat the coronavirus has targeted and spared certain ethnic groups.
The honorees also noted that Kennedy was a “belligerent critic” of the agencies under his purview, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy threatened to fireplace employees of the FDA, which he says has waged and promised a “war on public health.” Replace a whole lot of NIH employees the day after Trump's inauguration.
More broadly, he said vaccine researchers “should be in jail and the key should be thrown away.” in accordance with NBC News.
“The head of DHHS should continue to promote and improve – not threaten – these important and highly respected institutions and their employees,” the letter said.
In an announcement Monday evening, a spokesman for the Trump transition team said: “Americans are tired of elites telling them what to do and how to do it.” Our health care system on this country is broken. Mr. Kennedy will implement President Trump’s agenda to revive the integrity of our health care system and make America healthy again.”
77 award winners – from medicine, chemistry, business and physics – signed the letter. They included Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this 12 months for the invention of microRNA, and Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his or her research on global inequality.
Dr. Harold Varmus, a 1989 Nobel laureate who signed the letter, said scientific research – which is determined by federal funding and contributes to the country's economic growth – can’t be divorced from the political climate.
“Science depends on the political structures of this country, he said. “I don’t think we should bury our heads in the sand just because we are scientists.”
For most of the signatories, that is the second political campaign they’ve participated on this 12 months. Dozens of Nobel laureates signed an open letter in October endorsing Kamala Harris for president.
Roberts hoped that this letter would achieve success. Even if the letter influenced a small variety of senators, it may very well be enough to dam Kennedy's nomination.
“Maybe there are some who read this and think, well, we really want to protect the health of our citizens,” he said. “They didn’t elect us so we could kill them.”
image credit : www.boston.com