Ex-CDC Vaccine Chief Accuses RFK Jr. Of Lying To Congress: 'Just Continually Making Things Up'

Source: Huff Post

Sep 5, 2025, 07:40 AM EDT | Updated 9 hours ago


Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned his position as head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases last week, said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “lied to Congress” during a combative hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.

In an interview with CNN’s “The Source,” Daskalakis said he and some of his former colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “were just stunned at the number of mistruths that we heard” from Kennedy. “He lied to Congress,” Daskalakis told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment.

Daskalakis slammed Kennedy’s denial that David Geier, a known vaccine skeptic, has been tasked with studying the “link” between vaccines and autism as untrue, noting that Geir “is, in fact, doing research” for the department.

Daskalakis also disputed Kennedy’s statement that he had received a briefing from the CDC department tasked with issuing vaccine recommendations, which Daskalakis previously led. “We heard that we briefed him. That is also untrue,” he said.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ex-cdc-vaccine-chief-says-kennedy-lied-to-congress_n_68baae1de4b0acb9ffeb9666