Leading CDC Scientist Abruptly Resigns in Wake of Reconstitution of ACIP

A CDC scientist leading the team that tracks respiratory infections “abruptly resigned yesterday, based on concerns that the data won’t be used objectively or with scientific rigor following recent changes to the CDC’s vaccine advisory group.” CIDRAP has the news.

The scientist, Fiona Havers, led the RESP-NET Hospitalization Surveillance Team, and is “the latest in a series of top CDC scientists to exit the agency.” Her resignation comes a week before the newly appointed ACIP meets for the first time. The group now “includes vaccine skeptics and others who don’t have extensive expertise in vaccines.”

HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “last month revised CDC vaccine recommendations to remove advice that children, those not at high risk, and pregnant receive the vaccine. Instead, he sent a long rationale to Congress that contained several errors and misrepresentations.” The medical officer who co-led the CDC COVID-19 vaccine work group also resigned in wake of this, saying “the current situation made it [no] longer possible to protect some of the most vulnerable members of the population.”

The 17 ACIP members who were abruptly removed last week by Kennedy also penned a Viewpoint for JAMA. They said ACIP “has traditionally been populated by scientists that have a deep understanding of immunization issues and have ensured that the CDC’s policies are grounded in the strongest science. They pushed back on Kennedy’s claims that health providers and the public doesn’t trust the CDC’s vaccine recommendations.” They said the abrupt changes have “critically weakened” the U.S. vaccine program.