The Japan Times - RFK Jr slashes 10,000 health department jobs in major overhaul

The move comes despite the country facing its worst measles outbreak in years and mounting fears that bird flu could spark the next human pandemic.

Kennedy has alarmed health experts with his rhetoric downplaying the importance of vaccines and even suggesting that avian influenza should be allowed to spread freely among America's poultry.

Including early retirements and so-called "deferred resignations," the total downsizing will reduce the department's workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees, according to an official statement, saving an estimated $1.8 billion annually -- a tiny fraction of the HHS annual budget of $1.8 trillion.

"We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl," said Kennedy. "We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic."

The restructuring plan would consolidate the current 28 divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services into 15, including a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.

"This Department will do more -- a lot more -- at a lower cost to the taxpayer," he added.

The restructuring plan would consolidate the current 28 divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services into 15, including a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.

It will also seek to implement the department's new priority of "ending America's epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins," the statement said.

While addressing issues such as America's obesity epidemic and industry-favored food regulations aligns with concerns shared by many in the scientific and medical communities, Kennedy's long history of promoting misinformation about vaccines and questioning basic scientific principles has caused deep concern.

In 2023, for example, he suggested that infectious disease research should be paused for eight years. He has also questioned whether the HIV virus causes AIDS -- and even whether germs cause illness at all.

More recently, Kennedy has emphasized treatments like Vitamin A for measles over preventative vaccination, claiming the vaccine itself causes deaths "every year."

"He couldn't do a worse job than he's doing," Paul Offit, a renowned pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology, told AFP recently.

The current measles outbreak has affected at least 378 people -- the overwhelming majority of them unvaccinated -- and resulted in two deaths.

Kennedy's suggestion on Fox News that avian flu should be allowed to spread unchecked so that "you can identify the birds that survive, which are the birds that probably have a genetic inclination for immunity," and then breed them -- has also drawn sharp criticism.

Experts warn that the more a virus spreads, the greater the likelihood it will mutate into a more dangerous form for humans.

K.Inoue--JT