Inside the Turmoil at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s C.D.C.

NY Times -   Almost as soon as he recaptured the White House, President-elect Trump announced that he was choosing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who had amassed a substantial following while spreading falsehoods about vaccines — first through his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, and then through his Make America Healthy Again movement, or MAHA — endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid. Trump promised to let him “go wild on health.”

Since his confirmation in February 2025, Kennedy has taken particular aim at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency charged with safeguarding the nation’s public health. He has called the C.D.C. “the most corrupt agency at H.H.S. and maybe the government” and vigorously defended mass terminations carried out by Elon Musk’s DOGE. At least 2,400 employees, or 18 percent of the C.D.C. staff, have been fired or have resigned since January 2025.

Kennedy has said that the C.D.C. — which comprises more than 20 centers focused on a wide range of public health issues, including infectious diseases, food-borne illness, substance abuse and violence prevention — had grown unwieldy and that its size was undermining its mission. More