Robert Kennedy Jr.’s purge of experts at the Centers for Disease Control is nothing less than a national disgrace. The CDC has long stood as the world’s premier public health agency, the place where our nation—and often the world—has turned in moments of crises, from polio to Ebola to COVID. By hollowing it out of scientific expertise, Kennedy is deliberately crippling our ability to respond to the next all-but-certain health emergency. 

This is not just reckless—it is a direct threat to American lives. Weakening the CDC does not make us safer or stronger; it leaves us more vulnerable to disease, panic and unnecessary death.

The irony could not be starker:  Donald Trump, in his wisdom, chose an anti-vaccination activist with a history of heroin addiction, who is neither a scientist nor a doctor, to lead the world’s premier public health organization. I hope that American voters realize the danger we are in and will, at long last, vote out of power those who might plunge our nation into the medical Middle Ages.

Edward Kornbluh, DDS
Schodack Landing, NY