A day following criticism from nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who argued that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions at the agency were unprecedented, Kennedy responded with an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

Kennedy stated in the op-ed published Tuesday that the CDC “was once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health.” He continued, “Its mission — protecting Americans from infectious disease — was clear and noble. But over the decades, bureaucratic inertia, politicized science, and mission creep have corroded that purpose and squandered public trust.”

He suggests that the agency should revert to its original concentration on infectious diseases, proposing a shift away from public health improvement efforts that involve programs targeting chronic diseases like diabetes or heart disease, moving these away from the CDC.

Kennedy characterized the nation’s pandemic response as a “failure,” criticizing public health officials for prioritizing “cloth masks on toddlers, arbitrary 6-foot distancing, boosters for healthy children, prolonged school closings, economy-crushing lockdowns, and the suppression of low-cost therapeutics in favor of experimental and ineffective drugs.”

“The CDC must restore public trust — and that restoration has begun,” he wrote.

Kennedy’s editorial comes after a tumultuous few weeks for the agency, starting with a shooting at the Atlanta headquarters and the subsequent firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez. Monarez, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, had only been in the position for approximately a month.

Her dismissal led to the resignation of several senior CDC officials in protest, sparking a back-and-forth between Monarez’s legal team and the White House. It also prompted a staff protest at the Atlanta headquarters last week and a harsh editorial from the New York Times, penned by nine former directors on Monday, labeling Kennedy as “dangerous.”

In his editorial Tuesday, Kennedy didn’t address questions surrounding Monarez’s firing or his recent actions on vaccines. Instead, he blamed the Biden administration for missteps during the pandemic and criticized how the CDC’s scope has expanded over the years.

The CDC was founded in 1946 with a focus on preventing malaria from spreading across the country. Over time, its work expanded to include other infectious diseases — like polio, smallpox and HIV — as well as public health issues like chronic disease, lead poisoning, bioterrorism, injury prevention and global health.

Kennedy argued in his op-ed that the agency’s expanding role led to “irrational policy” during the pandemic.

“The path forward is clear: Restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency,” he wrote.

Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law San Francisco, called Kennedy’s op-ed “misleading” and “hypocritical,” given his own action since taking office.

Kennedy is leveraging public frustration with the pandemic to justify broader changes that could weaken the agency, Reiss said.

His editorial calls for the agency to protect the public from infectious disease threats, apply “gold standard science” and support communities — but several CDC centers are already devoted to these initiatives, she said. Kennedy repeated his call for the agency’s chronic disease programs to be moved over to a new entity called the “ministration for a Healthy America.” (The health secretary cannot create this agency on his own and would need help from Congress, Reiss added.)

“Mr. Kennedy is gutting the CDC’s ability to respond to infectious diseases, working to undermine trust in it, and not doing anything to improve trust,” she said.

Over the summer, Kennedy fired all the members of an influential panel for childhood vaccinations and replaced them with his own members, some of whom are known anti-vaccine activists.

Last month, he also announced that the Food and Drug ministration had narrowed its approval for this fall’s Covid shots, limiting it to people 65 and up and those with underlying medical conditions.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, where he is expected to face questions surrounding the CDC and his recent actions on Covid shots.

The nine former directors and acting CDC directors who signed the New York Times editorial are: Drs. William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky and Mandy K. Cohen.

They accused Kennedy of focusing “on unproven ‘treatments’ while downplaying vaccines.”

Kennedy, they added, “canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies.”

Last week, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who was a key vote in Kennedy’s confirmation, called for the CDC to postpone its visory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting this month amid the CDC shakeup and criticisms of Kennedy.