"I only see harm coming," said Demetre Daskalakis in an interview that aired Sunday about his departure from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Speaking to host Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week," Daskalakis discussed his resignation as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which came after the ouster last week of CDC Director Susan Monarez, a Trump appointee who came in to conflict with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccinations. Three other top health officials also resigned.
"Based on what I'm seeing," he told Raddatz, "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 ideologic direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination. They do want to see the undoing of mRNA vaccination."
At the heart of the issue, Daskalakis said, is the breakdown of the wall between science and ideology.
"I have been ready to do this when I felt that I hit the line," he said of his resignation. "And I hit the line when both I didn’t think that we were going to be able to present science in a way free of ideology, that the firewall between science and ideology is completely broken down."
Kennedy, who has for years expressed his skepticism about vaccinations, had previously fired all members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices that advises the CDC on vaccines and overseen cuts to federal agencies involved in public health. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday" in support of the CDC shake-up, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said: "Those who resign in protest probably are resigning because scrutiny that's much deserved is now being applied to the CDC."
But Monarez last week accused Kennedy of “weaponizing public health for political gain." In the ABC interview, Daskalakis said he feared the government's new approach will, among other things, make it much harder for people to get the vaccinations they need.
"Yes, it will be on the shelf," he said, "but you’re not going to be able to find it at a pharmacy, that’s already happened. CVS, Walgreens, because of this confusion, they’re not going to stock it, or they’re going to require a doctor’s prescription."
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