RFK urges FDA staff not to be part of "deep state"

If Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was trying to inspire Food and Drug Administration staff with a Friday address at agency headquarters, the reception he got showed he has a bumpy road ahead.

The big picture: Kennedy used an appearance at the agency's Silver Spring, Maryland, center to urge employees not to be part of the "deep state" — which he asserted exists — and said the FDA had become a "sock puppet" of industries it regulates.

It's an analogy he's used before, but not directly to the faces of agency staff.
In unscripted remarks, Kennedy didn't mention layoffs and restructurings that have eliminated 3,500 FDA jobs but touted his agenda aimed at reducing childhood chronic diseases.

He encouraged FDA employees to call out superiors for approving "something that shouldn't be approved."

He also brought up an infamous 1960s psychological experiment that tested people's willingness to inflict pain on another person when ordered, noting a third of the subjects didn't follow orders.
"I want you to see yourself as part of that 33%. ... You're not here to take orders," Kennedy said.
Accounts and transcripts of the remarks were quickly leaked to media outlets, including Axios, and some FDA employees walked out before Kennedy finished, according to multiple accounts.

Kennedy began his message by stating the deep state is real, and that "every institution that's created by human beings" succumbs to "institutional pressures."...

He suggested this was a cause of the surge of chronic illness in children — and that he didn't know kids with food allergies or conditions like ADHD and autism when he was young.

Kennedy, at a Cabinet meeting last week, said his department had launched a "massive" research effort that will determine the cause of autism by September.