© AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, FileHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference on the Autism report by the CDC at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 16, 2025.
The former directors described Kennedy as "dangerous" in a Sept. 2 New York Times editorial and in cable news appearances. While the paper noted the group included officials in both parties — exploiting fractures in the Republican caucus on Kennedy's leadership — it failed to mention they have financial or professional ties to the industries and nonprofits facing diminished influence under Kennedy.
"Conflicts of interest and an entrenched status quo have broken the American people's trust in our public health system," an HHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in response to the investigation's findings. "Secretary Kennedy is committed to transparency and upholding gold-standard science to restore confidence in our country's health care institutions."
The former CDC officials' criticism of Kennedy follows his ousting of Susan Monarez from her position as CDC director on Aug. 27 — apparently over changes to the committee that advises the CDC on the childhood vaccination schedule, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Monarez will testify Wednesday before the Senate Health, Education and Pensions Committee and will say that Kennedy directed her to approve ACIP decisions in advance and dismiss vaccine officials, according to her prepared testimony as obtained by the NYT.
Former Biden CDC Director Rochelle Walensky
The NYT editorial criticized Kennedy's support of "federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage," a reference to the passage of President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill in July, which restricts Medicaid dollars from flowing to able-bodied adults without dependents or proof of employment. But the editorial does not disclose that several authors have financial ties to health care companies impacted by clawing back of Medicaid dollars.
© Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer/APDr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, answers a question during a briefing at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, August 5, 2020.
When the firm recruited Cohen in March 2025 they described her expertise as including "changes affecting Medicaid" and "public health strategy and communications."
Health executive William Roper led the CDC from 1990 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush and also coauthored the NYT editorial. Roper joined the board of dialysis giant DaVita Inc. in 2001. He resigned from the board in 2020. His affiliation with the company lasted many years longer than his CDC tenure. A 2019 WBTV investigation found Roper made roughly $3.6 million in total compensation from DaVita from 2010 to 2018.
DaVita controls a third of the U.S. market for dialysis for patients with end-stage renal disease and kidney disease, conditions often caused by diabetes. Kennedy has sought to curb diabetes by cutting sugary drinks from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, improving medical schools' nutrition programs and other initiatives.
Roper also served on the board of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts until it was acquired by insurance giant Cigna in 2018, then on the Cigna board until 2021. Roper did not disclose either board position on ethics forms while serving as the dean of the University of North Carolina Medical School and the CEO of UNC Health Care, according to WBTV.
Roper led the UNC System, which oversees 16 universities including the University of North Carolina, from 2019 to 2020. His tenure coincided with increased scrutiny of UNC for its connection to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and collaboration on coronavirus engineering research that some scientists and government officials — including Kennedy — say may have contributed to the onset of COVID-19.
Cohen and Roper did not respond to requests for comment sent through LinkedIn.
Nonprofits
Several of the former CDC officials have lent their credibility to nonprofits that have at times accepted funding from special interest groups — connections emblematic of the revolving door Kennedy seeks to shut.
Two of the former CDC directors who coauthored the piece — Jeffrey Koplan, who served under President George W. Bush, and David Satcher, who served under President Bill Clinton — have previously served on the CDC Foundation, which has come under fire in recent years for acting as a vehicle for special interests.
Coca Cola donated $1 million to the CDC Foundation between 2010 to 2015, with more gifts reported in the foundation's own records, according to a 2019 study. Internal CDC emails obtained a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) and cited in the study showed that Coke staff met with CDC on the anti-obesity initiatives. For years CDC falsely claimed not to accept commercial support while accepting millions from drug companies and other commercial interests through its foundation, according to USRTK.
Frieden has worked with the World Health Organization, which has seen its global influence diminish since Trump withdrew U.S. funding from the organization.
Koplan also served on the China Medical Board, an organization to "promote the development of healthcare in China ... through funding medical, nursing, and public health research and education." The board receives financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation, the sponsor of a variety of leftwing causes, with an emphasis on climate change. Following the COVID pandemic, in which Beijing concealed information related to the virus's origin and hoarded medical supplies, the Trump administration has taken action to unwind dangerous collaborations on dual use medical research with China and achieve more independence from China in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Koplan, Satcher, Frieden and Schuchat did not reply to emailed requests for comment.
Walensky did not respond to a request for comment sent through the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is a fellow.
Reader Comments
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BK
Keep well my friend!
So, I'll just list 3.
1. My nieces husband got a "turbo cancer" and he is now buried. I was there when they put him in the ground.
2. My youthful neighbor, a radio personality now, had a daughter at Wake Forest suffer a "blood clot" injury and she is now "gone on to meet her maker" - God Bless her.
3. And my friend just mentioned above - heart attacks happen, but look at the incidence rates of heart ailments these days - it is an open and shut case.
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I hope some heads in the CDC and FDA both commence to rolling....
Fortunately so far have not lost anyone. But it's getting to the point that every vaxxed person I know or come into contact with is a cancer survivor or currently in the battle.
My guess is until some "remedy" is proffered (not holding up many hopes from the Medical Establishment in that regards), then it is only going to get worse for those who took the damn experimental jabs - and gracious me how is it these folks think they are "experts" - when they don't acknowledge the most evident statistics and all the articles coming out now - and they must not realize - some of us love our children and we will fight to the death to defend them from harm.
It was heart-breaking to be there at the funeral of my niece's husband and god-dammit - she has suffered enough. Tis mind boggling a 20-something young gal healthy in all ways dies from a blood-clot and nobody connects the fucking dots! As for my friend from high-school just had a heart attack I have nothing but well wishes for her recovery - but tis no doubt in my mind - Tis WAR....and the folks there at UNC-Chapel Hill - School of Public Health - the very place I have a plaque from for "high potential" 1991 - well they best get their Chapel in order - cause they are a root cause of these troubles and Ralph Baric is on NOTICE!
The Wolfpack is on the hunt and best to hunt local at first.
Regards,
Ken
It's sad.
Now if we want to dig deeper I say "follow the money" out of Summerville, SC.
This is why - SC is a forlorn state - I mean the Senator Graham out of that place is a known war monger and it ain't no damn coincidence - and what's her name that representative - she best be careful about making a show out of this and that as SC gals are want to do - cause perty soon Ms. Mace I think is her name - the whole country is gonna be fedup with SC bullshit - so don't play that game honey - don't get sucked up into the dc kabuki. Oh, the name "mace" is apt I reckon - but glory be I don't think the clerics are gonna join the efforts of the kabuki theatre and in Summerville, SC is where large amounts of funds get transferred and that is a place where much of the "Covid-BS" - twas a military bioweapon operation went down. And legally they think they got themselves "covered", but SC did try to secede first and the crew of the Hunley all died - and really South Carolina - tis a misbegotten state if there ever was one - and one to be avoided is my council.
Get a clue.
I've provided the link regarding this more than once and for Christ's sake - tis time for some heads to ROLL in the CDC and FDA - cause the evidence is in and PROVEN.