At a press conference Friday at the Codman Square Community Health Center in Dorchester, Markey, former CDC director Rochelle Walensky, and other experts said Kennedy's skepticism of vaccines and recent policy changes are endangering Americans far beyond Washington. From firing the CDC's top official to restricting who can get COVID-19 boosters, Kennedy has undermined decades of progress in immunization, forcing states like Massachusetts to step in and protect access on their own, they said.
Walensky, who served as CDC director under President Biden from 2021 to 2023 and previously led the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital, reflected on her time at the CDC, saying she had often warned about the nation's fragile public-health infrastructure and lack of preparedness for future pandemics.
"I reminisce about those days when lack of support for public health was our biggest challenge," she said.
She stressed that most Americans continue to embrace vaccines.
"In today's divided America, there's one consensus that remains: 92 percent of parents still vaccinate their children," she said. "Surely we can all agree we don't want our children to die."
At Thursday's Senate hearing, Kennedy defended his decision to reorganize the agencies he oversees. "We are the sickest country in the world. That's why we have to fire people at CDC. They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy."
Markey reiterated that he had opposed Kennedy's nomination from the start, calling him "unqualified" and "dangerous" during confirmation hearings in January.
He accused Kennedy of repeatedly misleading the public and lawmakers -- from misrepresenting the COVID-19 death toll to questioning the safety of vaccines, overstating access to the new COVID boosters, and denying that the Trump administration made cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Markey said Kennedy's record showed a consistent pattern of lies.
"The only truth we came away with is how dangerous Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is to the health of our nation, in our communities." Markey said referring to the Senate hearing.
The senator underscored vaccines' role in extending American life expectancy over the past century and warned that rolling back vaccine requirements would undo those gains.
He pointed to Florida's move to eliminate school vaccination requirements as a public-health "calamity," saying outbreaks there could easily endanger families traveling not just from Massachusetts, but around the world.
"The price of admission to Disney World shouldn't be a case of measles or COVID," he said.
To hold Kennedy accountable, Markey announced the launch of an "RFK Jr. attacks tracker" to monitor his actions at HHS. Later on Friday, he issued a letter to CVS and Walgreens pressing them for information on booster availability nationwide.
In June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of an influential committee that advises the CDC on vaccine policy and replaced them with a smaller group that includes vaccine skeptics. The shakeup has delayed critical guidance on booster eligibility and has kept many pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices from offering the shots. Last month, the FDA also restricted COVID vaccines to adults 65 and older or individuals with high-risk medical conditions.
Markey and Walensky praised Governor Maura Healey for requiring Massachusetts insurers to cover state-recommended vaccines regardless of shifting federal guidance. Under a Healey administration order, insurers must cover updated vaccine doses for everyone 6 months or older. That order allowed many people across Massachusetts to secure vaccination appointments at pharmacies starting Friday.
Walensky described the dismantling of vaccine infrastructure as incremental but deliberate. She argued that these changes have eroded long-standing protections, particularly programs such as the Vaccines for Children initiative, which provides free immunizations to underinsured and uninsured children.
"Unless action is taken and fast, you may be lulled into thinking vaccines are here, when vaccinations themselves may no longer be within reach," she said.
Other speakers stressed the frontline impact of the changes.
Dr. Eli Freiman, a pediatric emergency physician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and an officer of the Massachusetts Medical Society, worried about long forgotten illnesses coming back.
"One of my mentors still tells stories about performing nightly spinal taps in infants due to [flu-related meningitis]," Freiman said. "These diseases have not disappeared, and this threat is not theoretical. The fact that we see so little of them today is a direct result of vaccination."