Trump and RFK Jr are dismantling public health—aided and abetted by powerful doctors

High profile physicians should be using their positions of power to resist Trump and RFK Jr’s damaging policies, not collaborating with them, say Gavin Yamey and Jonathan Shaffer

President Donald Trump and secretary of health and human services Robert F Kennedy Jr have held many press events during which they have promoted dangerous health misinformation. Despite taking an oath to “first do no harm,” influential doctors have stood by Trump and RFK Jr’s sides during these briefings, lending their support. The wider medical community needs to tackle this phenomenon with evidence based strategies, including warning the public about the risks of misleading information, highlighting scientific consensus, mapping the institutional networks that spread controversial information, and countering them using political and legal strategies.