"Fiona Havers, who oversaw CDC respiratory virus data, told colleagues she no longer had confidence the data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy."
"A senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who oversaw respiratory virus surveillance has resigned and raised concerns about the future of vaccine policy as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. upends the agency’s long-standing approach to immunization.
Fiona Havers, a physician considered a senior subject-matter expert on respiratory diseases and vaccines, led the CDC’s surveillance of hospitalizations for coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common respiratory virus that is the leading cause of hospitalizations in infants.
“Unfortunately, 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,” Havers wrote in a Monday morning email to colleagues obtained by The Washington Post.
CDC staff including Havers present hospitalization data at nearly every public meeting of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee. Last week, Kennedy ousted all members of that panel — the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — and replaced them with his own picks, including at least three people who have criticized the use of mRNA coronavirus vaccines. Two of his appointees testified against vaccine manufacturers as expert witnesses in lawsuits, and another served on the board of the nation’s oldest anti-vaccine group."
Lena H. Sun reports for the Washington Post June 16, 2025.
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