ICYMI: Senator Markey and Former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Op-Ed in Newsweek: “America Is Getting Sicker, Not Healthier, Under Trump and RFK Jr.”

Read the full piece in Newsweek

Washington (March 16, 2026) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director under President Joe Biden, published an op-ed in Newsweek titled, "America Is Getting Sicker, Not Healthier, Under Trump and RFK Jr."

Senator Markey and Dr. Walensky detail the damage that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has done to Massachusetts' and the country's health infrastructure as he has sown seeds of distrust in medicine and science, particularly vaccines, and taken a sledgehammer to life-saving research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other health and research institutions. Under RFK Jr.'s tenure, in Massachusetts alone, the flu has already killed 300 people, including eight children; NIH disrupted funding to 18 clinical trials, affecting 13,000 patients; and two Massachusetts hospital systems were unable to recruit a single infectious disease trainee, reflecting a growing shortage of infectious disease physicians.

America Is Getting Sicker, Not Healthier, Under Trump and RFK Jr.

By Edward J. Markey and Rochelle Walensky

Published March 14, 2026

"President Trump and RFK, Jr. promised to "Make America Healthy Again." But instead, the administration has done quite the opposite-hollowing out our nation's health agencies, promoting vaccine mis- and disinformation and leaving us less prepared for the next public health emergency. The measles outbreaks make it obvious: we are fighting yesterday's diseases-not tomorrow's. America is getting sicker, not healthier."

Read the full opinion piece in Newsweek.

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