Robert Kennedy Jr. has slashed staffing at the Center for Disease Control in his new role as health chief, expanding the purge of government departments conducted by President Trump and Elon Musk.
The newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services for President Donald Trump fired nearly half of the vaunted team of ‘disease detectives’ during his first day on the job, setting the scene for a slimmed down department moving forward.
The entire incoming class of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) were reportedly told they are no longer needed as part of 1,300 layoffs at the CDC.
He explained that during his own failed presidential campaign he sensed that young people were disconnected from their communities and families.
‘You have a whole generation of kids that feel alienated, dispossessed,’ he said. ‘They are in an existential crisis not only because their health … there is no purpose in their lives and no sense of usefulness or effectiveness.’
Kennedy, although a former Democrat, faced a firestorm of controversy from Senate Democrats around his nomination to the Department of Health, as they raised concerns about his positions surrounding vaccine safety.
He promised Americans would still be able to take as many vaccines as they wanted, but said he wanted to study them and make them safer.
‘If people are happy with their vaccines, they ought to be able to get them,’ he said.