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

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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.

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