Environmental activist and author Tatiana Schlossberg passed away on December 30, 2025, at the age of 35, due to a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Tatiana Schlossberg was diagnosed in May 2024, shortly after the birth of her second child, with acute myeloid leukemia associated with a rare mutation known as Inversion 3. Schlossberg, the granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, had become a widely respected figure not only in the United States but also in the international field through her work in climate journalism and activism.
Shortly before her passing, Schlossberg published an essay titled “A Battle With My Blood” in The New Yorker.
She candidly writes about her illness as well as her deep disappointment with the health policies of her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s been serving as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services since February, 2025.
In the essay, Schlossberg criticized cuts to public funding for cancer research, including projects involving mRNA technology. Reflecting on her treatment process while emphasizing the critical role played by doctors, nurses, and researchers during the course of her illness, she mentions that reductions in public funding for these fields could negatively affect the future of treatments.
“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 half a billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers.”
The outcome of Kennedy Jr.’s health policies
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assumed office as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after being nominated by Donald Trump in February 2025. Kennedy Jr. has previously been the subject of public controversy due to his anti-vaccine rhetoric and for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 treatments. Dr. Richard Allen Williams, a cardiologist and founder of the Minority Health Institute, describes Kennedy as “the ringleader of the misinformation campaign.”
“In August, 2024, he suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, who said that he was going to ‘let Bobby go wild’ on health. My mother wrote a letter to the Senate, to try and stop his confirmation; my brother had been speaking out against his lies for months. I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the position, despite never having worked in medicine, public health, or the government.”
According to Cancer Therapy Advisor, Kennedy Jr. announced in August 2025 that he was canceling approximately $500 million in grants and contracts dedicated to the development of mRNA vaccines. The decision halted funding for 22 research projects overseen by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Schlossberg also noted that doctors at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she was receiving treatment, faced growing uncertainty over the sustainability of research and treatment programs as a result of federal funding cuts.
She’s watching irresponsible health policies from her hospital bed
The death of Tatiana Schlossberg, who dedicated her life to combating the climate crisis through environmental activism and journalism, has once again brought debates over health policy to the forefront; this time through the lens of one of the United States’ most influential political families.
While watching Kennedy Jr.’s irresponsible health policies from her hospital bed, Schlossberg underscored just how crucial government funding is to cancer research:
“My plan, had I not gotten sick, was to write a book about the oceans—their destruction, but also the possibilities they offer. During treatment, I learned that one of my chemotherapy drugs, cytarabine, owes its existence to an ocean animal: a sponge that lives in the Caribbean Sea, Tectitethya crypta. This discovery was made by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, who first synthesized the drug in 1959, and who almost certainly relied on government funding, the very thing that Bobby has already cut.”
Öyküm Hüma Keskin 
CancerDisinfo 