Details from the resignation letters of top officials from the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the government’s top health experts have been ignored and sidelined by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy has never been briefed by any experts from the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRP), which deals with immunisation, viral and bacterial diseases, influenza and coronaviruses, according to Dr Demetre Daskalakis, NCIRP director until his resignation on Wednesday.

“We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us,” said Daskalakis in his letter, which he published on X.

“Unvetted and conflicted outside organisations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources,” he added.

The resignations came during a day of chaos at the CDC as Kennedy sought to remove director Dr Susan Monarez, the Republican pick for the post confirmed by the US Senate a month ago. 

Reports indicate that Kennedy attempted to pressure Monarez into supporting new restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines and instructed her to dismiss senior staff. Late Wednesday, Monarez’s legal counsel said that she refused to resign, but her appointment was later “terminated” by the White House.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy was one of the foremost spreaders of anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracies, while the organisation he founded, Children’s Health Defense, has campaigned against several vaccines for years.

Surging measles cases

Chief Medical Officer Dr Debra Houry, the institution’s most senior career leader, resigned on Wednesday after 10 years at the CDC, serving under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

“The science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations,” Houry wrote in her letter, published by Inside Medicine.

Asserting that vaccines save lives, Houry said that, while it is important to question research, this should be done “by experts with the right skills and experience, without bias, and considering the full weight of scientific evidence”. 

“Recently, the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of US measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency,” she added.

Dr Daniel Jernigan, director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, has worked at the CDC since 1994.

“I believe strongly in the mission of public health and the leadership that CDC has given for almost 80 years; however, given the current context in the department, I feel it is best for me to offer my resignation,” said Jerigan.

CDC data manipulation?

Dr Jennifer Layden, director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, has also resigned, although her reasons have not been made public. 

There have been indications for months that the CDC’s database is under political pressure.

The CDC has removed 146 datasets since March, according to Stat. Meanwhile, on numerous datasets, the word “gender” was replaced by “sex”, according to a study published in The Lancet in July.

Axios reported on 8 August that the CDC had changed the wastewater viral activity for COVID-19 from “low” to “moderate”. However, when Health Policy Watch checked the CDC site, it indicated that wastewater data for COVID-19 has not been updated since 9 August due to a “technical issue”, but the COVID risk was now classified as “low”. This suggests it had been downgraded since the Axios report – despite no new data being available.

The CDC apparently also took down its public database showing that Republican-governed states have higher homicide rates than Democratic states.

‘Eugenics’ at play?

Daskalakis makes several damaging allegations in his letter, one being that “eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated” about vaccines.

“The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines, favoring natural infection and unproven remedies, will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many, if not all, will suffer,” he argues.

“The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest,” he says, adding that he has “never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people”.

Daskalakis also says that recent restrictions on access to COVID-19 vaccines threaten the lives of young children and pregnant women, and criticises Kennedy’s preference for communicating via social media rather than office channels.

“I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision. Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world,” he concludes.

Kennedy’s response

Kennedy was dismissive of the resignations during an interview on Fox News, suggesting the institution is “in trouble” and that “some people should not be working there anymore”.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate health committee, simply said on X that the CDC’s “high-profile departures will require oversight” by his committee.

However, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate health committee, called for Kennedy to be fired: “We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground – he must be fired. I hope my Republican colleagues who have come to regret their vote to confirm RFK Jr. will join me in calling for his immediate termination from office.”

Image Credits: HHS.