Donald Trump and maga Republicans must fire Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while more medical groups are calling for his removal

Maine Writer note:  As of early 2025, over 355 Maine health care professionals sent a letter to Senator Susan Collins urging her to oppose the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The group of doctors, nurses and medical providers argued that RFKjr's long history of promoting vaccine skepticism and health misinformation made him a "dangerous nominee". As a Maine nursing leader, I was advocating with Maine Senator Susan Collins to oppose the RFKjr nomination. At that time, the Maine Medical Association was lukewarm as an association to openly oppose RFKjr's nomination, although many physicians individually signed the letter. Subsequently, as physicians are realizing how much harm the Kennedy incompetence is causing their patients and the damage his policies are doing to destroy medical research, these physician groups are finally organizing to call for his removal. In my opinion, Senator Collins would have been more inclined to oppose RFKjr's nomination if the Maine Medical Association had been a lead in our constituents' letter, but that's just my opinion. Nevertheless, I was proudly a leader among the providers who obtained signatures and I then hand delivered one copy to Senator Collins' office in Lewiston, Maine. Others gave copies of the letter with the signatures to various staff offices and delivered it to her Washington DC office. I know the Maine Medical Association could have done more to support our group's advocacy. In a ZOOM phone call with Senator Collins conducted before the nomination vote and after she received the letter, her response to our advice was, "I liked him more than I thought I would". 

NPR reports: Psychiatrists call for RFK Jr. to be replaced as health secretary

Psychiatrists have joined other public health groups in calling for the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary.

Two psychiatry organizations — the Southern California Psychiatry Society and the recently formed grassroots Committee to Protect Public Mental Health — have released statements saying that the actions of the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services have increased stigma, instilled fear and hurt access to mental health and addiction care.

"As physicians committed to evidence-based care, we are alarmed by the direction of HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr," the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health said in a statement.

HHS responds:  "Secretary Kennedy remains firmly committed to delivering on Donald Trump's (empty❗)promise to Make America Healthy Again by dismantling the (evidenced based treatment❗) failed 🤥🤥status quo, 🙄💩restoring public trust in health institutions, and ensuring the transparency, accountability, and decision-making power the American people voted for," Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the federal health department, wrote to NPR in an email.

The Southern California Psychiatry Society represents more than 1,000 clinicians; the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health has just over 50 members.

In recent years, the federal government had taken a leading role in funding efforts to address serious mental illness and substance use through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administrations (SAMHSA), notes Dr. Steven Sharfstein, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.

Those efforts had started to pay off, he adds. "There's been great progress in reducing the number of overdose deaths in the country as a result of these initiatives," he says.

But the firing of staff at SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services) earlier this year and the health secretary's efforts to shutter the agency have hurt those efforts, says Sharfstein, who's also a founding member of the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health