Washington, D.C. — The nation’s largest nurses union issued a scathing rebuke of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., demanding his resignation or immediate removal by President Donald Trump after a week of turmoil inside America’s top public health agencies.
National Nurses United (NNU), representing more than 225,000 registered nurses nationwide, declared Kennedy’s seven-month tenure a “disaster” that has eroded public trust and endangered millions of Americans.
“Secretary Kennedy’s time at our nation’s highest public health agency has been characterized by one disaster after another,” said Mary Turner, RN, president of NNU. “It is time for him to go.”
The call follows dramatic events at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On Monday, Kennedy reportedly pressured CDC Director Susan Monarez to resign. By Thursday, federal guards escorted Monarez and two other top officials out of the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.
Monarez’s attorneys said she was targeted for refusing to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives.” One ousted CDC leader, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, wrote in his resignation letter that he could no longer serve amid the “ongoing weaponizing of public health.”
Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccines, has faced backlash for overseeing budget cuts, firing thousands of federal health workers, and dismantling vaccine advisory committees in favor of critics. Most controversially, the Food and Drug Administration—under his authority—limited updated Covid-19 vaccines to older and medically vulnerable populations, a move experts warn could cost lives.
“This decision alone, which symbolizes Secretary Kennedy’s hostility to life-saving vaccines, is not only a major risk with the ongoing threat of Covid and further mutations of the virus, it symbolizes why his continued leadership must end,” Turner said.
Public health leaders echoed the alarm. Dr. Richard Besser, former acting CDC director, described recent events as “an extraordinary and systematic dismantling of the very top of our nation’s public health system.”
NNU also cited Kennedy’s cancellation of mRNA research funding, repeated attacks on federal workers’ bargaining rights, and his public promotion of conspiracy theories. Earlier this year, critics said his skepticism fueled a fatal measles outbreak.
The union’s demand places additional pressure on President Trump, who appointed Kennedy in January. For now, the White House has not responded to calls for his removal.
But for America’s front-line nurses, patience has run out. “Our members are clear,” Turner said. “This is about protecting the lives of our patients and the safety of our nation. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has to go.”
