A former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization director warned Sunday that he only sees “harm coming” in the direction that the Department of Health and Human Services is moving under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, who resigned on Wednesday, warned of the forthcoming “ideologic direction” of public health in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week.
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“From my vantage point, as a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic oath, I only see harm coming,” Daskalakis told Raddatz. “I may be wrong, but based on what I’m seeing, based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they’re really moving in an ideologic direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination.”
Daskalakis’s resignation comes as a reported clash over vaccine policy and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” vision led to the firing of former CDC Director Susan Monarez and the subsequent resignation of four high-ranking officials, including Daskalakis. He wrote in his resignation letter that Kennedy and his staff’s views on public health impeded his ability to continue successfully in his role.
“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” Daskalakis wrote in his resignation letter.
In June, Kennedy removed all former members of the ACIP from their roles on the committee and replaced them with seven new appointees. Thirteen out of 17 of the vaccination safety committee members were appointed by former President Joe Biden.
He told Raddatz that much of the conflict came over Kennedy’s recently approved restrictions on the COVID-19 vaccination. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for people over the age of 65 this week, but limited approval for younger people to only those with underlying conditions. The directive could leave millions of people in limbo for COVID-19 vaccination approval.
“Six months old to 2 years old, their underlying condition is youth; 53% of those children hospitalized last season had no underlying conditions. The data say that in that age range, you should be vaccinating your child. I understand that not everybody does it, but they have limited access by narrowing that recommendation. Insurance may not cover it,” Daskalakis said.
Kennedy celebrated the FDA move on X.
“I promised 4 things: 1. to end covid vaccine mandates. 2. to keep vaccines available to people who want them, especially the vulnerable. 3. to demand placebo-controlled trials from companies. 4. to end the emergency. In a series of FDA actions today we accomplished all four goals,” Kennedy wrote of the restrictions. “The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded.”
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Daskalakis told Raddatz he worries next about Kennedy’s impact on mRNA and Hepatitis B vaccinations. In early August, HHS ordered the cancellation of $500 million worth of mRNA vaccination development, targeting 22 mRNA vaccines in development. Kennedy’s newly appointed chairman of ACIP, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, said in late June that a working group would analyze the Hepatitis B vaccine given to newborn children. ACIP meets next in mid-September, and Daskalakis says the Hepatitis B vaccine is on the agenda.
“They do want to see the undoing of mRNA vaccination. They have a very specific target on COVID. But I do fear that they have other things that they are going to be working on. Hepatitis B vaccine is on the agenda for the meeting in September,” Daskalakis said.