A group of top leaders who resigned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this week cast blame for their decision on the environment created by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Trump.
“I think the CDC really is a place filled with great scientists and experts. And I think that if the CDC is being characterized as trouble by Secretary Kennedy, I think we have to turn the mirror back to him, because I think that the trouble is emanating mainly from him,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Thursday night during an appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”
“I think that the disregard for experts, the clear statement that experts should not be trusted, really makes it seem unlikely that his mission for CDC is to be a bastion of scientific expertise,” he told host Kaitlan Collins.
Daskalakis, who stepped down from his role shortly after the administration ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez, touted the progress the agency made after the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he added, “that progress is being dismantled by Secretary Kennedy, and his, I don’t know what his vision would be.”
He continued, “I guess you call it vision for public health, but it’s not been articulated, so I can’t tell you what that vision is.”
Daskalakis appeared on the show with Dr. Debra Houry, former CDC deputy director and chief medical officer, and Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who served as director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Both also submitted resignation letters on Wednesday.
The White House and Kennedy on Thursday brushed off the resignations while defending Monarez’s firing, arguing her policy did not align with the administration’s agenda.
“Again, I cannot comment on personnel issues, but the agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it — and we are fixing it — and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” Kennedy said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.”
The personnel changes at the agency, including the recent tapping of deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill to serve as acting director, prompted calls for a bipartisan investigation by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) also pressed the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel to postpone its upcoming meeting following the leadership shakeup.
Houry took her criticism of Kennedy even further during the interview, suggesting he would sidestep their recommendations to push his own agenda.
“He will push vitamins, you know, as prevention versus, you know, it can be an adjunct,” Houry said Thursday night when speaking of Kennedy. “And so, I think it’s really, you know, we included stuff on vitamins, on our information on measles. But we want to be very clear, prevention via vaccines was the most important thing.”
“The secretary then might speak about it and elevate different things, which makes it difficult when he takes our materials and uses his own personal spin on it,” she added.
Daskalakis echoed the scrutiny, telling Collins that the CDC should “not have a bias” and accused Kennedy’s allies of being “full of ideology and bias that will actually contaminate the science.”
“So, I think that we have evidence that this is coming, and I think that the other part that we’re seeing is that decisions are being made and data is being retrofitted to be able to address the decision,” he said.
