CDC vaccine expert quits after RFK Jr. cuts advisers
Dr. Fiona Havers, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's tracking of hospitalizations from COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, stepped down this week. Adobe stock/HealthDay
June 18 (UPI) -- A senior scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has resigned, warning that changes in leadership may weaken the country's vaccine program.
Dr. Fiona Havers, who led the CDC's tracking of hospitalizations from COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, stepped down this week.
"Unfortunately," she said in an email to colleagues, " I no longer have confidence that these data will be used objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions." The memo was obtained by The Washington Post.
Havers' departure comes just days after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with new appointees. The panel makes recommendations on use of vaccines in the United States.
At least three of the new members have spoken out against mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Two have served as witnesses in lawsuits against vaccine makers, and one served on the board of the nation's oldest anti-vaccine group, The Post reported.
Havers worked at the CDC for 13 years. She presented hospitalization data at advisory committee meetings. Her resignation is the latest in a string of exits from the agency.
Earlier this month, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, a CDC vaccine adviser, also resigned. And before that, five senior leaders stepped down from their CDC roles, The Post reported.
In addition, Melinda Wharton, a top CDC official who managed advisory panel operations, was removed from her role last week.
In a commentary published June 16 in JAMA, the 17 former panel members said the recent cuts have "critically weakened" the U.S. vaccine program.
"We are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale, may roll back the achievements of U.S. immunization policy, impact people's access to lifesaving vaccines, and ultimately put U.S. families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses," they wrote.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said HHS is "committed to following the gold standard of scientific integrity" under Kennedy's leadership.
"Vaccine policy decisions will be based on objective data, transparent analysis and evidence -- not conflicts of interest or industry influence," Nixon said in a statement.
In her email to colleagues, Havers expressed pride in the work she and her team had done.
"I'm grateful to have been part of such important and effective work that has provided decision-makers with real-time, high-quality, rigorous scientific evidence that have been used to track disease severity over time, tailor vaccine messaging to groups at highest risk for severe disease and provide critical inputs for vaccine cost-effectiveness analyses," she wrote.
Just this April, Havers presented data showing that infants under 6 months old had the highest rates of COVID-related hospitalizations, The Post reported.
Her report also found that most hospitalized children under 2 years old had no underlying health conditions.
More information
Learn more about the role of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
7 hours ago
- Politico
RFK Jr. goes after immigrants to cut health insurance costs
The Trump administration is tightening eligibility for Obamacare coverage in what it says is a bid to combat a 'surge of improper enrollments' and to lower insurance costs broadly. Critics say the rule changes will cause eligible people to miss out on a chance at subsidized health insurance and increase the uninsured rate. 'With this rule, we're lowering marketplace premiums, expanding coverage for families, and ensuring that illegal aliens do not receive taxpayer-funded health insurance,' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release that projects $12 billion in savings from the rule changes next year. Those changes include reducing the enrollment period for plans by two weeks, adding paperwork requirements for some enrollees, ending the use of federal subsidies to help cover the cost of transgender people's transition-related medical care, and barring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from purchasing insurance on the exchanges. Those are immigrants brought to the country without documentation when they were children whom President Barack Obama protected from deportation. The final rule also repeals a special enrollment period for individuals in households earning less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level. CMS estimates about 725,000 to 1.8 million people will lose coverage as a result of the final rule. In January, CMS said about 24 million people had signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025. Many of those will lose coverage because enrollment will be less consumer-friendly, said Larry Levitt, who advised President Bill Clinton on health policy and is now executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a health care think tank. 'I think the combination of the shorter open enrollment period and the more complex income verification rules will result in more people falling through the cracks,' Levitt said. Levitt noted that many policies in the final rule are effective only for the 2026 plan year, but that could change if Congress codifies them. The House last month included some of the changes in its version of President Donald Trump's megabill. The Senate hasn't yet voted on its version of the bill, which aims to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts but needs budget savings to do it. The final rule shortens the annual open enrollment period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The previous enrollment period ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15. The regulation also eliminates a policy under which individuals with low incomes who are eligible for premium-free plans are automatically re-enrolled in them. Under the new rule, they will be re-enrolled with a $5 monthly premium in plan year 2026. If the individual files paperwork showing they are still eligible for a no-premium plan, they'll be re-enrolled in one. Taken together, CMS estimates the changes will cause individual health insurance premiums to drop by an average of 5 percent.
The Hill
9 hours ago
- The Hill
HHS investigating Michigan healthcare system over alleged conscience rights violation
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is investigating whether an employee at a Michigan hospital system was fired for refusing to use a patient's preferred pronouns and assisting in 'sex trait modification' procedures, the agency's Office of Civil Rights announced Friday. The healthcare worker allegedly requested religious accommodations from certain employment practices like using a patient's preferred pronoun even if they do not match with their sex and from helping with 'certain sex trait modification procedures,' according to a press release from HHS. An HHS spokesperson has yet to respond to questions from The Hill on the name of the health care system under investigation. If the employee was fired for this reason, the press release states, the termination was a violation of federal conscience laws. The investigation will look into whether the health system has policies that align with federal conscience laws, also known as Church Amendments, that seek to accommodate healthcare workers with religious beliefs that conflict with certain healthcare procedures. The investigation will also examine the specific circumstances related to the healthcare workers' firing. 'OCR is committed to enforcing Federal conscience laws in health care,' said Paula M. Stannard, OCR Director. 'Health care workers should be able to practice both their professions and their faith.' This is the third investigation regarding conscience rights in health care the department has launched since President Trump returned to office in late January. 'Today's announcement is part of a larger effort to strengthen enforcement of laws protecting conscience and religious exercise,' the agency said in a statement.
The Hill
9 hours ago
- The Hill
Vaccine advisers set to review ingredient in influenza shot
PRESENTED BY The Big Story Coming next week: The first meeting of RFK Jr.'s handpicked vaccine advisory panel. © Photo credit It's the first meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) since Kennedy fired all 17 members and appointed eight new panelists, several of whom are vocal vaccine critics. As part of its scaled-down two-day meeting beginning Wednesday, the committee is set to vote on influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal — an ingredient wrongly linked to autism. Kennedy has long advocated for banning thimerosal, a preservative that was widely used for decades in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines. In his 2014 book, Kennedy said thimerosal was 'toxic to brain tissue' and likely caused autism. Thimerosal, a compound that contains mercury, is used as a preservative to prevent harmful bacteria in multidose vials of vaccines. The compound has been largely phased out as manufacturers have shifted toward single-use vials that contain little or no thimerosal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thimerosal was largely removed from pediatric vaccines by 2001, amid concerns that it could be linked to autism in children. But according to the CDC, 'a robust body of peer-reviewed scientific studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries support the safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines.' The draft agenda for next week's ACIP meeting revisits issues that scientists and public health experts have long considered to be settled, including the use of the measles mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine in children under 5 years old. It's unclear yet what the panel will discuss regarding the shot. The current CDC childhood vaccine schedule recommends two doses for children, with the first dose at age 12-15 months and the second at age 4-6 years. CDC suggests that the MMR vaccine be given rather than MMRV for the first dose, but both shots have been on the schedule for decades. Welcome to The Hill's Health Care newsletter, we're Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond: Trump administration makes sweeping changes to ObamaCare, ends 'Dreamer' coverage The Trump administration is shortening ObamaCare's annual open enrollment period and ending the law's coverage of immigrants that entered the U.S. illegally as children, according to a final rule announced Friday. The Biden administration made it easier and more affordable to sign up for Affordable Care Act plans, causing enrollment to swell to an all-time high. The Trump administration claims those moves opened a wave … New COVID-19 variant causes 'razor blade throat' Patients and doctors say the latest COVID-19 variant spreading in the U.S. in some cases causes a sore throat so painful it has earned the nickname 'razor blade throat.' The nimbus variant, which is officially known as NB.1.8.1., is a descendant of the omicron and is being monitored by the World Health Organization. 'Your throat is so dry, so cracked, it's so painful, it's even hard to drink sometimes,' Muhammad Azam, … ChatGPT use linked to cognitive decline: MIT research ChatGPT can harm an individual's critical thinking over time, a study released this month suggests. Researchers at MIT's Media Lab asked subjects to write several SAT essays and separated subjects into three groups — using OpenAI's ChatGPT, using Google's search engine and using nothing, which they called the 'brain‑only' group. Each subject's brain was monitored through electroencephalography (EEG), … On Our Radar Upcoming news themes and events we're watching: In Other News Branch out with a different read from The Hill: Agencies they can't enforce anti-trans bias policies against Catholic groups: Judge BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Two federal agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse for religious reasons to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients or won't provide health insurance coverage for such care to their workers, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The ruling from U.S. District … A MESSAGE FROM ALLIANCE FOR AGING RESEARCH Around the Nation Local and state headlines on health care: What We're Reading Health news we've flagged from other outlets: What Others are Reading Most read stories on The Hill right now: Senate parliamentarian knocks pieces out of Trump's megabill Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled that several key pieces of the massive bill to implement President Trump's agenda run afoul of … Read more Supreme Court rules against FDA, EPA 12:30 Report is The Hill's midday newsletter. Subscribe here or using the box below: Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters … Read more What People Think Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill: You're all caught up. See you next week! Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here
