To the editor:

At John F, Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings, he promised to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes”.

In June, he fired all 17 members of the committee, asserting without evidence that the committee members were “plagued with persistent conflict of interest,” even though they had all been very carefully vetted for such conflicts. Kennedy unequivocally praised Susan Monarez during her confirmation hearings, only to fire her when she refused to rubber-stamp his crazy attacks against vaccines.

With her ouster, the CDC’s chief medical officer, the director of respiratory diseases, and the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases all resigned their positions in protest.

While Kennedy continues to fill the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC with people who have no training in either medicine or the science of infectious diseases, all nine living past Directors of the CDC, who served under multiple Republican and democratic administrations from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump, have written a shocking article called, “We Ran the CDC; Kennedy is endangering Every Americans Health”.

We should all read their words and demand much more from Donald Trump’s current administration. Don’t be fooled. We are a weaker nation now and we and our children are all at a greater health risk.

This administration’s elected officials and their unelected representatives, directors and secretaries continually lie to us citizens, and by acting as if the President has ALL powers, they are causing irreparable harm to our faith in democracy’s ability to create a just and tranquil society.

Tom Duca

Essex