A top COVID vaccine advisor at the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has resigned saying that she is no longer able to perform her mission in helping “the most vulnerable.”
Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos informed her colleagues on Tuesday in an email that she made a “personal decision” to quit the CDC after 12 years.
“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 in a letter obtained first obtained by Reuters. Panagiotakopoulos co-led a coronavirus vaccine work group of CDC staff and outside experts who assisted the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP, in crafting guidance for the shots. The group reviews vaccine safety and effectiveness data and the epidemiology of the coronavirus to assess the risks and benefits of the shots.
While Panagiotakopoulos did not name any specifics in her email, the timing suggests that her actions were a result of recent changes made by the Trump administration.
Last week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced that that the CDC would be removing the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule. “Bottom line: it’s common sense, and it’s good science,” the Secretary said. “We are now one step closer to realizing @POTUS’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.”
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