By Leah Douglas, Dan Levine and Julie Steenhuysen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Departing senior officials of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention left the agency due to changes to its vaccine advisory board and other vaccine policies, they told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis and Dan Jernigan, who resigned on Wednesday in a major leadership upheaval at the nation's top public health agency, said they had become aware that vaccine advisers appointed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines, were making recommendations before reviewing data.
"For us, that's problematic," Houry said in a group interview from the Emory University School of Public Health shortly after the three were escorted from the agency's Atlanta headquarters.
"As scientists, you should never know in advance what you want the data to show," added Houry, who had been the CDC's chief medical officer.
Daskalakis said: "I'm a doctor, I took the Hippocratic oath that said 'first, do no harm.' I believe harm is going to happen, and so I can't be a part of it."
Kennedy has made sweeping changes to the nation's vaccine policies, including firing all members of the CDC's expert vaccine advisory panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, in June. He replaced them with hand-picked advisers including several like-minded anti-vaccine activists.
HHS did not respond to request for comment on the officials' account of changes inside CDC. Kennedy maintains his policies aim to improve Americans' health and remove undue industry influences. On Thursday, he said the CDC should support President Donald Trump's vision, adding "it may be that some people should not be working there anymore."
Houry said that once confirmed, CDC Director Susan Monarez tried to change the ACIP, including by adding a new designated federal official and having relevant documents posted for public comment, but was blocked in her effort.
"She wanted to have engagement and transparency. Those things were not done," Houry said. "She was given feedback from HHS that those couldn't happen, and she was called to a meeting with the secretary on Monday. For us, we knew that if our scientific leader couldn't make changes like that, we could no longer stay."
Monarez abruptly departed the agency on Wednesday. The White House has said that she was fired, though her attorneys say her firing is illegal. Through a spokesperson, Monarez declined to comment.
'CREATING CHAOS'
Daskalakis directed the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, while Jernigan led the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
Jernigan, whose department oversaw the Vaccine Safety Group, said over the last several months he was asked to review and revise long-established findings about vaccine safety data at the behest of Lyn Redwood and David Geier, anti-vaccine activists who promote a debunked link with autism.
Redwood, former leader of the Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, is listed as an expert and Geier as a senior data analyst in the HHS employee database.
Jernigan said he questioned HHS officials on whether their work was legal, scientifically sound and ethically responsible.
"I was told was that the requests were legally supported and that that was enough. But for me, that's just not enough," he said. "I have come to that point where I'm not able to fulfill the duties that I have as a public health professional."
Geier and Redwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daskalakis said he believes the goal of Kennedy and his close advisers is "to create chaos and more mistrust of vaccines, so that there is less demand for vaccines, and then over time, they can demonstrate that there's less need" for federal vaccine subsidies.
Kennedy's vaccine policy changes have already prompted medical organizations and several states to formulate their own recommendations for the autumn respiratory illness season, concerned that many healthy children and pregnant women could lose access to important inoculations.
The Food and Drug Administration's decision on Wednesday to narrow eligibility for updated COVID-19 vaccines also raised concerns about health insurance coverage of the shots.
Houry, Jernigan and Daskalakis had previously decided that if they left the agency, they would do so together, they said. They gathered items from their offices and met with staff before being escorted out on Thursday, they added.
(Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
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