Susan Monarez’s 28-day tenure as the nation’s top public-health official was doomed from the start. Her boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wanted her to do two things: champion his dubious anti-vaccine agenda and uphold “gold-standard science” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recognizing the conflict, Monarez chose the latter and was fired last month.

Monarez’s departure from the CDC highlights a dilemma that any successor will face: Under Kennedy, no serious scientist can hold the job. The risk this vacuum of expertise could pose to Americans’ health and safety is significant.

Kennedy has been a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist for decades. Public frustration with pandemic-era mask and vaccine mandates helped catapult him to popularity and may have led to his appointm

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