More than 1,000 current and former federal health workers demanded the resignation of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a letter on Wednesday, a week after he facilitated the ouster of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez.

Kennedy has increasingly faced scrutiny from within HHS, partly because of his long-held vaccine skepticism, which the workers argued has influenced his decision-making. Monarez’s firing and the resignations of four CDC officials only accelerated the staff revolt against Kennedy.

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“We swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution and to serve the American people,” the public letter says. “Our oath requires us to speak out when the Constitution is violated and the American people are put at risk. Thus, we warn the President, Congress, and the Public that Secretary Kennedy’s actions are compromising the health of this nation, and we demand Secretary Kennedy’s resignation.”

The signatories then called on President Donald Trump and Congress to appoint a new HHS secretary if Kennedy refuses to resign, saying his replacement should possess “qualifications and experience [ensuring] that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science.”

The letter garnered 1,040 signatures from officials working for multiple federal agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Institutes of Health.

“To be clear, the HHS workforce is nonpartisan, implementing science-based policies developed under both Republican and Democratic administrations,” they wrote. “We believe health policy should be based on strong, evidence-based principles rather than partisan politics. But under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS policies are placing the health of all Americans at risk, regardless of their politics.”

Because Trump has been strongly aligned with Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, it remains to be seen how he will respond to calls for the HHS secretary’s resignation. So far, Trump has defended Kennedy in the role.

Wednesday’s letter comes one month after a gunman targeted the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, seemingly motivated by his distaste for the COVID-19 vaccines that he blamed for his mental health problems. The workers’ letter points to Kennedy’s response to the shooting as yet another reason for his departure.

Kennedy denounced the violence at the time but did not directly address anti-vaccine sentiment expressed against the CDC. Nearly 900 HHS workers signed a previous letter urging Kennedy to stop spreading health misinformation about vaccines.

Kennedy, a staunch vaccine skeptic, recently removed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and rescinded the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines.

HUNDREDS OF HHS STAFF CALL ON RFK JR. TO CONDEMN HEALTH MISINFORMATION FOLLOWING CDC SHOOTING

Kennedy defended his actions in a new op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, saying the HHS is working to restore public trust in the CDC following the pandemic.

“Most CDC rank-and-file staff are honest public servants,” he wrote. “Under this renewed mission, they can do their jobs as scientists without bowing to politics. The agency will again become the world authority on infectious-disease policy.”