Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in Phoenix, Arizona, August 23, 2024. Olivier Touron, AFP/File

WASHINGTON - US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced plans to cut a quarter of his department's workforce as part of a sweeping restructuring, framed as a push to prioritize chronic disease prevention under his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.

The plan will see the elimination of 10,000 positions, reducing the department's workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees when including early retirements and those who accepted buyouts offered by Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

It comes as the country faces its worst measles outbreak in years and as concerns mount that bird flu risks sparking a new human pandemic.

Kennedy has alarmed health experts with his rhetoric downplaying the importance of vaccines against measles, a childhood disease once-vanquished in the United States, and suggesting that avian influenza should be allowed to spread freely among poultry.

According to an official statement, the plans would save an estimated $1.8 billion annually -- a mere 0.1 percent of the Department of Health and Human Services' 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 (AHA).

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

President Donald Trump's opponents in Congress hit back.

"Let's be clear: Arbitrarily firing over 10,000 workers at the Department of Health and Human Services will not make Americans healthier. It will make Americans sicker and less secure," said leftwing Senator Bernie Sanders, vowing to use his position on a key committee to try to "reverse these disastrous cuts."

- History of misinformation -

The Food and Drug Administration will be the hardest hit, with 3,500 job cuts, followed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with 2,400, and the National Institutes of Health, which will lose 1,200 employees.

Three hundred cuts will come from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, responsible for administering government-backed health insurance programs.

"This is an assault on Medicare. This is an assault on Medicaid. This is an assault on families and consumers across America," said Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

The new blueprint pledges to shift focus toward "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 Kennedy's push for cleaner food and stricter environmental standards aligns with concerns in the health community, critics warn that his long history of spreading vaccine misinformation and questioning basic scientific principles casts serious doubt on his commitment to evidence-based policy.

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

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

"He couldn't do a worse job than he's doing," Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert, told AFP recently.

The current measles outbreak has sickened 378 people -- the overwhelming majority of them unvaccinated -- and caused 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 encouraging viral spread could accelerate dangerous mutations and increase the risk to humans.

ia/aha

© Agence France-Presse