During a heated exchange at POLITICO’s 2025 Health Care Summit, Calley Means, Special Government Employee for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivered a scathing critique of legacy media, Big Pharma, and the U.S. health bureaucracy.

His remarks were made in response to questions from POLITICO’s White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns, who attempted to challenge him over the Trump administration’s decision to cut a quarter of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) workforce.

The cuts, aimed at reducing waste in the bloated HHS bureaucracy, have caused significant backlash, particularly from those aligned with the pharmaceutical industry and left-leaning media.

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These reductions targeted what many conservatives argue are wasteful offices focused on vaccine dogma, bureaucratic overreach, and ineffective programs in areas such as rural mental health and AI projects.

In her questioning, Burns echoed the left’s typical talking points, expressing concerns over “drug safety” and “pandemic preparedness,” suggesting that more government intervention would solve these issues.

However, Means turned the tables, urging for “a little bit of humility” from both reporters and lobbyists in the room as he highlighted the underlying message from voters who supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Trump.

According to Means, their popularity signals widespread dissatisfaction with the current system and its failure to improve American health.

“I’d say to the reporters in the room and the lobbyists in the room, I mean, obviously make your case, but I truly ask for, as you’re making it, a little bit of humility about what the voters were trying to say by putting Bobby Kennedy Jr. in this position of power. I would ask for a little bit of humility to ask why Bobby Kennedy, along with President Trump, are the two most popular political figures in America by far. What the voters are trying to say, and I think they were right, is that the system is really on the wrong track.”

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Means then proceeded to make a bold accusation, claiming the National Institutes of Health (NIH) played a direct role in the creation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The NIH oversaw, and this is just consensus at this point, the literal creation of a pandemic.”

He continued his criticism of the NIH, along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), arguing that these agencies have overseen a “devastation” in American health.

“The NIH, whose goal is to promote American health, has overseen a devastation, just an abject devastation in American health over the past 20 years, with disease rates skyrocketing in America, leading the world in almost every single chronic disease, with rates of nearly every single chronic disease being at an all-time high among kids. There’s been very little innovation with small pharma, with innovative therapeutics at the FDA.”

Means also criticized CMS, describing it as an agency with a budget larger than the Defense Department’s, controlled by the American Medical Association (AMA), a pharmaceutical lobbying group.

He emphasized that the agency focuses more on “sick care” than on preventative measures.

“So there are real problems. And when you turn on CNBC, it’s a nonstop infomercial for pharma. It’s a Skyrizi commercial, followed by Scott Gottlieb saying how Bobby’s killing people, followed by breathless coverage of the measles outbreak and no mention of the mental health crisis. It is insane. It is insane. It is insane for you to insinuate that the thing standing between us and better health is more government bureaucrats.”

The conversation grew more tense as Means directly challenged the room of experts to justify the current state of the U.S. healthcare system.

“What metrics would you guys point to for how the scientific community, how the four times more per capita on health care spending that we spend in America versus other countries has produced innovation?” Means asked the crowd.

“Has there been one single chronic disease medication in modern American history that has lowered rates of the chronic disease?”

Means also took aim at the American Academy of Pediatrics, which he claimed is heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies and pushing controversial treatments, such as the use of Ozempic on young children.

“Is it appropriate that the American Academy of Pediatrics right now, which is 90% funded by pharma, is pushing Ozempic on six-year-olds? That is what the medical authorities are doing,” he said.

Here is 8 straight minutes of Calley Means calling out corrupt lobbyists to their faces.

Enjoy 🍿 pic.twitter.com/XO5YAUNU1x

— Anna Matson (@AnnaRMatson) April 2, 2025

Throughout the exchange, Burns attempted to defend the role of scientists, researchers, and safety protocols, but Means remained firm in his position, pointing to what he sees as the failures of these institutions in improving American health.

In the face of mounting criticisms, Means continued to press the point that real change is needed in America’s healthcare system, and that the American people deserve better than the status quo of bureaucratic inefficiency and corporate influence.

His remarks at the POLITICO Health Care Summit have sparked further discussion on the future of health policy and the need for reform in the nation’s healthcare system.

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