77 Nobel Laureates Warn against RFK, Jr. Confirmation for Secretary of the DHHS
Letter to Senate attached in full. They're right. This man is a disaster.
Worldwide, physicians and physicists, economists and chemists are panicking about the reckless political pay-off to RFK, Jr. that Donald Trump is making. One of the most irresponsible of all conspiracy theorists and self-elevating no-nothings, RFK, Jr. is particularly dangerous because of WHERE he has placed himself, on the coattails of high-achieving relatives, in the culture: No place in the culture is as dangerous as medicine for incompetence and deceit. This man is NOT a doctor, and, frankly, does NO RESEARCH, instead substitute grandstanding for knowledge and a litany of logical fallacies for even the most basic forms of clear, critical thinking.
When 77 Nobel laureates warn, the Senate should listen. So should everyone else. Maybe RFK is accidentally right about some things — but if that’s so, it’s because others, not he, have done decent research. But this much is so: Ivermectin is a galaxy-class scam. Vaccines have saved at least 154,000,000 lives, and each year they save 4,000,000 kids. Raw milk (actually, we probably shouldn’t drink cow’s milk at all) carries Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, and Campylobacter.
This man does not think well. He has been addicted to heroin and is (like his uncle) a sex addict and serial sexual abuser. He has defended family who have abused women, and one who killed one. He has had an invasive brain worm infection, and that didn’t help. And, as the Atlantic said, he has been shaped by trauma. That’s not his fault, and my heart goes out to him: he was a 14-year-old pall bearer after his father was shot in the head. How much can a kid take?
But unstable and deluded, as we already know from Trump, is a serious matter. RFK, Jr. is unfit for this job. Seventy-seven Nobel laureates agree. Here is their letter to the Senate.
December 9th, 2024
To Members of the United States Senate:
We, the undersigned Nobel Laureates, are writing to ask you to oppose the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
The proposal to place Mr. Kennedy in charge of the federal agencies responsible for protecting the health of American citizens and for conducting the medical research that benefits our country and the rest of humanity has been widely criticized on multiple grounds. In addition to his lack of credentials or relevant experience in medicine, science, public health, or administration, Mr. Kennedy has been an opponent of many health-protecting and life-saving vaccines, such as those that prevent measles and polio; a critic of the well-established positive effects of fluoridation of drinking water; a promoter of conspiracy theories about remarkably successful treatments for AIDS and other diseases; and a belligerent critic of respected agencies (especially the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health). The leader of DHHS should continue to nurture and improve--- not threaten---these important and highly respected institutions and their employees.
In view of his record, 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, in both the public and commercial sectors.
We strongly urge you to vote against the confirmation of his appointment as Secretary of the DHHS.
Peter Agre, Chemistry 2003
Louis E. Brus, Chemistry 2023
Thomas R. Cech, Chemistry 1989
Martin Chalfiem, Chemistry 2008
Elias James Corey, Chemistry 1990
Johann Deisenhofer, Chemistry 1988
Joachim Frank, Chemistry2017
Walter Gilbert, Chemistry 1980
Alan Heeger, Chemistry 2000
Roald Hoffmann, Chemistry 1981
Brian K. Kobilka, Chemistry 2012
Roger D. Kornberg, Chemistry 2006
Robert J. Lefkowitz, Chemistry 2012
Paul L. Modrich, Chemistry 2015
William E. Moerner, Chemistry 2014
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Chemistry 2009
Richard R. Schrock, Chemistry 2005
Daron Acemoglu, Economics 2024
George A. Akerlof, Economics 2001
Peter A. Diamond, Economics 2010
Robert F. Engle III, Economics 2003
Lars Peter Hansen, Economics 2013
Sir Oliver Hart, Economics 2016
Simon Johnson, Economics 2024
Finn E. Kydland, Economics 2004
Eric S. Maskin, Economics 2007
William D. Nordhaus, Economics 2018
Edmund S. Phelps, Economics 2006
Harvey J. Alter, Medicine 2020
Victor Ambros, Medicine2024
David Baltimore, Medicine 1975
J. Michael Bishop, Medicine 1989
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Medicine 2009
William C. Campbell, Medicine
David Julius, Medicine
Eric R. Kandel, Medicine 2021
Stanley B. Prusiner, Medicine1997
Sir Richard J. Roberts, Medicine 1993
Michael Rosbash, Medicine 2017
Randy W. Schekman, Medicine 2013
Gregg L. Semenza, Medicine 2019
Hamilton 0. Smith, Medicine 1978
Jack W. Szostak, Medicine 2009
Drew Weissman, Medicine 2023
Eric F. Wieschaus, Medicine 1995
John F. Clauser, Physics 2022
Jerome I. Friedman, Physics1990
David J. Gross, Physics 2004
John L. Hall, Physics 2005
J. Michael Kosterlitz, Physics 2016
Anthony J. Leggett, Physics 2003
John C. Mather, Physics, 1993
James Peebles, Physics, 1993
Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics, 1993
Kip Stephen Thorne, Physics
Daniel C. Tsui, Physics 1998
Rainer Weiss, Physics 2017
Here’s another article we published last week. This one, on vaccines and RFK, Jr. is really important to absorb so we know what’s at stake with this man.
RFK for Secretary of Health? One Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
In 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner, expanding on a discovery by Dr. Benjamin Jesty (and possibly from an earlier Turkish physician), created the world’s first successful vaccine. He noticed that milkmaids always had beautiful skin. Not only that, he noticed that they were always getting cowpox—which created lesions like smallpox, but with smaller lesions that a…
"When 77 Nobel laureates warn, the Senate should listen." And if they don't? Then woe be it unto us! Thank you so much for publishing their letter, along with their signatures, in full. I don't think I've seen that anywhere else.