A year into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promotion as Health and Human Services secretary, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who has become Kennedy’s most strategic critic, says his time in office has been “absolutely disastrous.” 

In a candid interview with Rolling Stone, the Maryland Democrat, tells Rolling Stone shared how his leadership has undermined years of progress in science, medicine, and public health. For Alsobrooks, the red flags about Kennedy were somewhat immediate.

“I was there to interview and meet with a number of the nominees,” she said. “I said to him, given that he was unqualified, with no background whatsoever in research, science, or medicine, ‘Do you intend to substitute your judgement for the judgement of scientists and doctors who have worked in these areas for decades?’ And he said, without hesitating, ‘I will replace bad scientists with good scientists.’ And I knew then that we were really in a lot of trouble.”

And that was how it all began. Since then, Kennedy has sparked outrage for spreading misinformation at the highest levels of government—most notably, claims that Black Americans may need different vaccines. During Kennedy’s heated confirmation hearing it was Alsobrooks who brought his questionable stance on race vs. science to the fore. "We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that's given to whites because their immune system is better than ours," he said at one point, to which Alsobrook pointed out.  

Kennedy’s interpretation of the data was harmful and incorrect: NPR later reported that he’d misrepresented a scientific study to make that argument, which the study’s author immediately refuted.

A few months later, in May of 2025, Alsobrooks was the first to file a no-confidence resolution: “RFK is making this country sicker, and we are sick of it,” the statement began. At the time, only a few of her colleagues signed it. Now, as Rolling Stone shares, 28 have cosigned what’s now hailed as the “Sick of It” campaign, with the aim of having Kennedy removed from his role.

“When I originally filed the resolution of disapproval, there was very little support for it. In fact, only four others signed on. It came about as I was watching all the mayhem and chaos happening inside these agencies. People inside NIH told me they were rationing gloves. The supplies were so scarce they had to break paper towels in half and were rationing bleach. The mass firings now total about 20,000 from the health agencies, and those are just the numbers we have,” she said to the outlet.

Alsobrooks says Kennedy’s rhetoric isn’t just misleading—it’s dangerous. “Parents need to understand they can’t trust anything that comes out of his agency,” she said.

Amid a resurging measles outbreak in South Carolina, Alsobrooks argues that America has already “crossed the line” when it comes to public health harm. And she’s making it clear this goes far beyond just politics.

“This isn’t partisan,” she insists. “There’s nothing political about the health of our country. Lives are at stake.”