A team of federal officials tasked with helping cities and states navigate the effects of climate change on people’s health was disbanded Tuesday, part of a sweeping overhaul ordered by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F.

Kennedy’s silence is prompting questions from lawmakers, with a bipartisan request for the health secretary to appear before a Senate committee next week to explain the cuts.

Top federal health leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services were effectively ousted Tuesday from their posts.

With Kennedy now leading the Department of Health and Human Services during a measles outbreak and providing medical advice that public health experts say is misguided (if not dangerous), this past episode reveals his troubling attitude toward measles and vaccines.

Current and former staffers say that after thousands of people were laid off, the future of agencies like the CDC and FDA are uncertain.

Anti-vaccine advocate and health secretary for the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ordered the nonprofit he once chaired to delete a webpage that mimicked the design of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while wrongly linking vaccines to autism. The New York Times earlier reported on the development.

The downsizing includes pushing out about 10,000 full-time employees through early retirements, deferred resignations, and other efforts. Another 10,000 will be laid off in a brutal restructuring, bringing the total HHS workforce from 82,000 to 62,000.

A bipartisan letter from lawmakers questions the legality of Robert F. Kennedy Jr's HHS changes and the lack of clear communication regarding their potential impact on American health.

Workers across the CDC were summarily fired on Tuesday, triggering what will be an unprecedented and chaotic withdrawal of the agency from many areas of disease prevention.