Former CDC immunizations chief: 'I only see harm coming' with RFK Jr. leading HHS

Source: ABC News

August 31, 2025, 10:49 AM


Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) immunizations chief Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said Sunday that he’s concerned with the direction the agency is going and worried about public health going forward.

Daskalakis, who served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, submitted his resignation from the CDC on Wednesday in protest following the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removing CDC Director Susan Monarez from her position. In his resignation letter, Daskalakis denounced HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership of both the HHS and the CDC.

“From my vantage point as a doctor who's taken the Hippocratic Oath, I only see harm coming. 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 ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination," Daskalakis told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

Daskalakis disagreed with changes to recommendations on who should get the new COVID-19 vaccine this fall, with the new dosage has been approved only for people aged 65 and up and children and adults with underlying health conditions that put them at high risk, creating confusion and uncertainty for people who want the latest vaccination who don’t meet these parameters.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/former-cdc-immunizations-chief-harm-coming-rfk-jr/story?id=125134748