Lena H. Sun, Lauren Weber and David Ovalle at WP:
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reeled from the ousting of its director, three senior leaders who resigned in protest told The Washington Post they were asked to participate in an unscientific vaccine recommendation process that they believe could harm the health of Americans.
The officials spoke shortly before security officials escorted them off the CDC’s Atlanta campus Thursday morning. Staff and leaders of the agency are openly revolting against the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of the CDC and anti-vaccine activist, after months of tension over vaccine policy and staffing cuts.
Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned as the agency’s top respiratory illness and immunization official, said the CDC had reached an “unfettered situation where undue influence and ideology would drive the science.”
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The White House on Wednesday announced the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, a longtime federal government scientist nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in July. Her attorneys have challenged the legality of her firing and said she would not resign after she refused to follow “unscientific, reckless directives.” Kennedy and other officials pressured Monarez to change vaccine policy and fire senior staff, people familiar with the conversations previously told The Post.
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The move to oust Monarez prompted three career officials at the agency to coordinate and announce their resignations Wednesday: Daskalakis, Deb Houry, the chief medical officer, and Dan Jernigan, who helped oversee the CDC’s infectious-disease response.
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As the founder of an anti-vaccine group, Kennedy has a history of falsely linking vaccines to autism and other unscientific claims. Kennedy has criticized the CDC often, calling it a “cesspool of corruption” and arguing it’s in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry.
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Jernigan said the last straw for him was being forced to work with David Geier, a proponent of the false claim that vaccines cause autism who was hired by HHS to review old vaccine safety data and study a possible link between the two. In recent weeks, an HHS official asked for Geier be given access to additional up-to-date vaccine safety data, which Jernigan said raised patient privacy and ethical concerns.
CDC employees walk out to rally in support of ousted leadershttps://t.co/blJCzpEKah
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 28, 2025