(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest union and Professional Association Of Registered Nurses (RNs), is calling on the U.S. Senate to reject the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department (HHS).

NNU President Nancy Hagans said: “For Nurses across the United States, memories of COVID’s deadliest days are still painfully fresh and we know that having strong leadership in the Federal Agencies tasked with protecting public health is a matter of life and death. Kennedy has a long track record of anti-science positions and opposition to measures that keep people healthy and safe. He’s the wrong candidate for the job, his nomination puts lives at risk and our patients deserve better.”

Kennedy would be one of the most dangerous individuals to ever hold the top U.S. Health Care Office, the NNU said, given his long-time opposition to life-saving vaccines and his willingness to spread medical disinformation and unfounded health care Conspiracy Theories.

After the Trump Administration froze HHS communications, travel and hiring during week one, causing critical health research meetings to be canceled and silencing the spread of necessary information during an H5N1 Avian Influenza outbreak, the NNU says Kennedy’s nomination to head the already chaotic department could be the straw to break the U.S. Health Care Community’s back.

In a 2023 podcast, Kennedy proclaimed there is “no vaccine that is safe and effective” and disputed the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidelines about if and when children should get vaccinated.

Kennedy has a history of spreading the debunked myth that vaccines cause autism and he has petitioned, with his lawyer, for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke the polio vaccine and pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines.

Kennedy’s insistence on spreading false information about the measles vaccine contributed to a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa that caused 83 deaths.

“Kennedy’s tenure would further inflame public distrust of critical vaccines and other health and safety protections,” Hagans said. “COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic we face. It is insulting and dangerous to nominate him to head the HHS when it’s clear from his very public record that he would actively position our country to experience more deaths when the next deadly infectious disease strikes.”

Nurses called on the U.S. Senate to “keep patients front of mind” during confirmation hearings and to reject Kennedy for the good of public health.

NNU represents 225,000 Members nationwide.

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