E-Paper
Tatiana Schlossberg dies: What RFK Jr's cousin said about Trump's cancer policy. New Yorker essay surfaces
Tatiana Schlossberg, John F Kennedy's granddaughter, has died a year after she revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer
Tatiana Schlossberg, John F Kennedy's granddaughter, has died a year after she revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer. Her passing was announced in a social media post by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
"Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts," read the post, which was signed by George, Edwin and Josephine Moran, Ed, Caroline, Jack, Rose and Rory.
What Tatiana Schlossberg said about her cousin RFK Jr
Schlossberg, like many in the Kennedy family, had criticized President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's policies.
In a New Yorker essay published in November, she said she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Talking about RFK Jr, she reflected on the personal impact of policies enacted during her cousin’s time as Secretary of Health and Human Services, saying his actions had deeply troubled her family.
She described him as “an embarrassment to me and my immediate family,” and recounted how decisions made under his leadership felt alarmingly close to home.
She explained that research funding cuts had begun affecting institutions such as Columbia University, where her husband, George Moran, works as an assistant professor of urology, leaving her worried about his position and the stability of his colleagues’ careers.
One decision she highlighted was the elimination of half a billion dollars for mRNA vaccine research, technology also used in cancer treatment, which she said filled her with horror.
After experiencing a postpartum hemorrhage, she was treated with mifepristol, a medication long used safely for medical abortions; she noted that her cousin later ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review the drug despite its decades-long track record. “Suddenly,” she wrote, “the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky.”
“As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers,” the essay reads.
