WASHINGTON >> Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, launched a lengthy broadside today against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., using his opening remarks at a public health conference to warn that installing Kennedy as health secretary would be “beyond dangerous,” and tantamount to “medical malpractice on a mass scale.”

Bloomberg, speaking at the two-day Bloomberg American Health Summit in Washington, called on Senate Republicans to persuade President-elect Donald Trump to “rethink” his choice of Kennedy for health secretary. If Trump cannot be persuaded, he said, the Senate has “a duty to our whole country, but especially to our children,” to vote against confirming him.

Bloomberg also assailed Kennedy for discouraging measles vaccination during an outbreak in the island nation of Samoa, where 83 people died.

“Parents who have been swayed by vaccine skepticism love their children and want to protect them, and we need leaders who will help them do that,” he said, “not conspiracy theorists who will scare them into decisions that will put their children at risk of disease.”

Bloomberg has spent billions of dollars promoting public health, both through his charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and through donations to the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, which now bears his name. The school and the charity hosted the health summit, with the theme of “advancing public health in uncertain political times.”

Like Kennedy, Bloomberg has fought battles against processed foods and has tried to promote healthy eating. But that, it appears, is where their like-mindedness ends.

Among other things, Bloomberg chided Kennedy for “nutty conspiracy theories,” including making the “outrageous false claim” that the COVID-19 shot was the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” He said Trump deserved credit for Operation Warp Speed, the fast-track initiative that produced coronavirus vaccines in record time, noting that studies have shown that the vaccines have saved an estimated 20 million lives around the world.

With experts warning of a possible bird flu outbreak in humans, Bloomberg said senators would face some hard questions: “With the nation facing a possible bird flu outbreak, are they really prepared to roll the dice on the lives of their constituents, by placing someone in charge of public health who has made it clear that he will prevent the approval of lifesaving vaccines?”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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