Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination (NY Times)

RFK, Sr. was a great and courageous American. His family does not support the junk science, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery emitted by JFK's nephew, and RFK's son, RFK, Jr.  Neither do I.  From The New York Times: 

Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination

Elevating Mr. Kennedy to secretary of H.H.S. “would put the public’s health in jeopardy,” more than 75 laureates wrote.

Listen to this article · 4:24 min Learn more

Richard Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, helped draft the letter. “These political attacks on science are very damaging,” he said. “You have to stand up and protect it.”Credit...Wu Hong/EPA, via Shutterstock

By Teddy Rosenbluth

Dec. 9, 2024

More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

The letter, obtained by The New York Times, marks the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against a Cabinet choice, according to Richard Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine, who helped draft the letter. The group tries to stay out of politics whenever possible, he said.

But the confirmation of Mr. Kennedy, a staunch critic of mainstream medicine who has been hostile to the scientists and agencies he would oversee, is a threat that the Nobel laureates could not ignore, Dr. Roberts said.

“These political attacks on science are very damaging,” he said. “You have to stand up and protect it.”

The laureates questioned whether Mr. Kennedy, who they said has “a lack of credentials” in medicine, science or administration, was fit to lead the department responsible for protecting public health and funding biomedical research.

“Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences,” the letter warned.

Read the Letter From Nobel Laureates Urging That Mr. Kennedy Not be Confirmed

More than 75 laureates have written an open letter describing Mr. Kennedy’s selection for H.H.S. secretary as detrimental to public health.

READ DOCUMENT 4 PAGES

If confirmed, Mr. Kennedy’s opposition to well-established public health tools, like vaccines and the fluoridation of drinking water, would pose a risk to the country’s well-being, the letter said.

The laureates decried Mr. Kennedy’s promotion of conspiracy theories. Mr. Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines to autism, rejected established science showing that H.I.V. causes AIDS, and suggested, without evidence, that the coronavirus targeted and spared certain ethnic groups.