“Thank you for putting up with my dysfunctional self,” Kennedy told staff.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has largely stepped back from running the agency, intervening only when issues capture his attention.
, a dozen people with direct contact with Kennedy, along with Health Department employees, said his leadership—or lack of it—has driven morale down to the point that they question the department’s ability to respond in a crisis. They said he is largely cut off from much of the staff and seldom engaged in the agency’s work, leaving parts of the department without clear leadership.if he was concerned after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed an American had been infected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , he said: “We’re working on it.
”Kennedy does, staff say, speak daily with acting CDC Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who was appointed in February and is known for opposing COVID-19 mask and lockdown mandates and for advocating “focused protection” for the healthy through natural infection. , the acting director—who also leads the National Institutes of Health—stumbled through a CNN interview in which he sought to reassure the public that the agency was on top of the outbreak.
Bhattacharya was appointed as an interim replacement for Susan Monarez, who was fired in August and later testified that she had refused RFK Jr.’s demands to approve vaccineKennedy’s low-profile approach comes as he presides over a growing leadership vacuum, The Times reports, with key roles left vacant as staff leave without being replaced. Jay Bhattacharya was a co-author of the controversial Great Barrington Declaration, which pushed for herd immunity during the COVID pandemic.
There is currently no surgeon general, the acting head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been removed, and the Food and Drug Administration chief resigned last month. Still, despite the turmoil within his agency, staff say that even when Kennedy attends the department’s weekly meetings with the heads of its 13 operating divisions, he shows up only about once a month and appears “checked out,” though still more present than at the start of his tenure, when they say he was rarely there at all.
According to one attendee who spoke with The Times, the secretary once arrived 15 minutes late to a meeting and entered the room with a self-aware apology: “Thank you for putting up with my dysfunctional self. ” When Kennedy does have to do the vital work of protecting American public health, overseeing food and drug safety, and managing major social service programs, he allegedly delegates it to Stefanie Spear, a longtime adviser who has been with him since his days as an environmental lawyer.
People familiar with the matter said all requests for the secretary’s decisions and meetings are routed through Spear, slowing down department operations. According to The Times, Kennedy frequently tells people, “Just run that by Stefanie,” when asked to take action or make decisions.
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