A leading coronavirus vaccine adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned Tuesday over what she called her inability to help the “most vulnerable” after a recommendation to immunize children and pregnant women for the virus was rescinded.
Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos announced her resignation in an email to her colleagues, The Washington Post reported.
“My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population, and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role,” she wrote.
Panagiotakopoulos, who worked at the CDC for 12 years, said in her email that she made her decision on Friday, just days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.
“The old COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children under 18 and for pregnant women have been removed from the CDC vaccine schedule,” a HHS spokesperson said in a statement. “The CDC and HHS encourage individuals to talk with their healthcare provider about any personal medical decision.”
The updated guidance clarified that coronavirus vaccines can still be given to people in those groups, and that parents can decide to get their children vaccinated in consultation with a doctor.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist now in charge of the country’s leading health agency, has also criticized the measles vaccine, even as more than 1,000 cases have been reported in the U.S.
In April, Kennedy baselessly said that the measles vaccine “contains a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles.”
Less than a week later, Kennedy went on TV to tell parents to “do your own research” on vaccines. He did not specify any sources parents should look at.
And during a House hearing last month, Kennedy said his opinions on vaccines are “irrelevant,” even as he has been given the power to change vaccination policy on a national scale.
“My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant,” he said. “I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”