Letters to the Editor: ‘I hope you lose sleep’: A doctor’s message to senators who vote to confirm RFK Jr.

To the editor: All Republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — including members who are physicians — voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to regulate healthcare in the United States. His nomination for Health and Human Services secretary now goes to the Senate.

Kennedy is already responsible for disease and death due to his giving false warnings about vaccines. He is untrained in science and medicine. He invents his health advice apparently from his imagination. He has been debunked repeatedly.

But he has pledged to do what he is told by President Trump. That, apparently, is his qualification for the job.

To the Senate committee members, I hope you lose sleep.

Michael Gross, M.D., Woodland Hills

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To the editor: Both op-ed article writer Lee Fang and RFK Jr. have zero medical or scientific credentials. Zero. (“Why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has captured the attention of everyday moms,” Opinion, Jan. 30)

Fang claims in his title that Kennedy has won over everyday moms, with zero evidence. In fact, more than 15,000 physicians signed a letter urging the Senate not to confirm Kennedy’s nomination. His own cousin, former U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, who has known him from childhood, denounced him as unfit.

As a physician myself, I see little benefit to affirming RFK Jr.’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, other than perhaps banning Skittles — though the Food and Drug Administration already banned red dye No. 3 on Jan. 15.

So please, Mr. Fang, stick to the facts, as Kennedy should, and as any good scientist routinely does.

Rose Maly, M.D., Los Angeles

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To the editor: Fang’s op-ed article on RFK Jr. gave me a flicker of hope that maybe The Times will actually present some sophisticated views from both sides of the political spectrum.

The thesis that the COVID-19 pandemic launched the Democrats in a direction contradictory to their values was quite insightful. The article also took a welcome and brief break from painting RFK Jr. as a complete lunatic by pointing out that then-President-elect Obama nearly nominated him for Environmental Protection Agency administrator in 2008.

David Waldowski, Laguna Woods

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To the editor: Fang’s hyperbolic castigation of the Democratic Party and seemingly every elected Democrat from Obama to Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts aside, the issue with Kennedy isn’t his “Make America Healthy Again” plans, which include some reasonable ideas.

It is his decision to ignore facts and embrace conspiracy theories such as childhood vaccines causing autism. Kennedy refuses to acknowledge when he is wrong and continues to espouse disproven theories for whatever reason.

Fang declares the Democrats’ “institutional deference” to be the real revelation of the Kennedy confirmation hearings. I declare that a man with the power to execute health policy in the United States should be able to use critical thinking and alter course when his beliefs are thoroughly proven to be wrong.

Everyday moms may not be so enamored of RFK Jr. when their children begin dying from preventable childhood diseases due to the rigidity of the nominee’s debunked “beliefs.”

Kent Grigsby, Riverside