CDC Scientist Leaves Agency Over Split With RFK Jr.

Dr. Fiona Havers’s resignation follows sweeping changes to the vaccine advisory panel and narrowed COVID-19 guidelines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta on Aug. 25, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who regularly presented data to the agency’s vaccine advisory panel has resigned.

Dr. Fiona Havers told The New York Times that she resigned from the CDC on June 16 because she disagrees with the approach to vaccines under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“If it isn’t stopped, and some of this isn’t reversed, like, immediately, a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Havers said.

Kennedy’s approach so far has included the narrowing of COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and the removal of all members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Kennedy has since named eight new members to the panel, which provides advice on immunizations to the CDC.

“I could not be party to legitimizing this new committee,” Havers told The New York Times. “I just no longer had confidence that the data that we were generating was going to be used objectively.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Havers frequently presented to the ACIP on COVID-19 developments.

A request for comment to Havers’s email returned an automated message that stated, “I am no longer at CDC.”

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDC’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times in an email that “under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS is committed to following the gold standard of scientific integrity.”

The spokesperson added, “Vaccine policy decisions will be based on objective data, transparent analysis, and evidence—not conflicts of interest or industry influence.”

The resignation followed the replacement of Dr. Melinda Wharton, a CDC employee who served as ACIP’s executive secretary.

Wharton, who did not respond to requests for comment, still works for the CDC as an associate director for vaccine policy, according to her LinkedIn and the HHS employee directory.

A spokesperson for the HHS in an email to The Epoch Times confirmed that Wharton was replaced by Mina Zadeh, who has worked for the CDC since 2000, most recently in the CDC director’s office on scheduling, and holds a doctorate in evaluation.

Zadeh “brings unparalleled experience, strategic insight, and commitment to scientific excellence to the ACIP,” the spokesperson said.

The draft agenda for the next ACIP meeting, which includes presentations on COVID-19, does not list Havers as a presenter. It states that Dr. Adam Macneil and Dr. Georgina Peacock will present on some aspects of COVID-19, while the presenters on other aspects have yet to be determined.