Latest news with #FionaHavers
The Independent
3 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
CDC virus expert quits after RFK Jr. purges vaccine advisers
Fiona Havers, a scientist in charge of Covid-19 and RSV data at the Centers for Disease Control, resigned on Monday after 13 years with the agency. Havers stated she no longer trusts that the CDC, under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will use the data objectively or with scientific rigor for vaccine policy decisions. Havers highlighted her work in presenting data at Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) meetings since 2020, which informed decisions on vaccine messaging and disease tracking. Kennedy recently removed and replaced all 17 members of the ACIP, stating the move was to restore public trust and ensure evidence-based medicine, but replaced them with individuals critical of vaccines. Havers' resignation follows those of other CDC vaccine advisors, including Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos and Melinda Wharton.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
CDC official in charge of Covid data resigns ahead of vaccine meeting
The scientist responsible for overseeing the CDC team that collects data on Covid and RSV hospitalizations resigned on Monday. Dr Fiona Havers told colleagues in an email that she no longer had confidence the data would be used 'objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions', according to Reuters. She resigned before a planned meeting of a new vaccine panel put in place by Robert Kennedy Jr after he fired all 17 members of the CDC's independent vaccine advisory panel. Kennedy also dropped a recommendation to get the Covid shot for healthy children and pregnant women. Havers, leader of the Resp-Net hospitalization surveillance team, did not respond to requests for comment. Her resignation follows moves by Kennedy, the health secretary, to abruptly fire all 17 members of the CDC's independent vaccine advisory panel and drop a recommendation for administering Covid shots to healthy children and pregnant women. Kennedy, who has long sown doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, replaced the advisory board with eight members of his own choosing, some of whom have histories of objecting to Covid shots or vaccines in general. Havers said in her email that the Covid and RSV data collected by her team had been used in more than 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 15 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports issued by the CDC. The newly installed vaccine panel, known as the advisory committee on immunization practices, is expected to meet 25-27 June to vote on the use of Covid-19 boosters and other vaccines by the American public. A Health and Human Services spokesperson told Reuters that the agency is committed to 'gold standard science' and that the vaccine policy will be based on objective data, transparent analysis and evidence.
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Covid-19 and RSV head data scientist dramatically quits saying she doesn't trust RFK Jr department to use it ‘objectively'
A scientist in charge of Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus data has abruptly resigned, telling colleagues she doesn't trust the Centers for Disease Control under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will use it 'objectively.' Fiona Havers led the CDC's surveillance of hospitalizations for Covid-19 and RSV until she resigned in a Monday morning email. According to her LinkedIn profile, she had worked at the CDC since 2012. '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,' her email, which was obtained and reported on by The Washington Post, read. Havers said in her email she was most proud of helping to allow data from her and her colleagues to be presented at every Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices meeting since 2020. The committee is responsible for evaluating the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines and then presenting its findings to the CDC. Havers said she was 'grateful' for the work she had taken part in 'that has provided decision-makers with real-time, high-quality, rigorous scientific evidence that have been used to track disease severity over time, tailor vaccine messaging to groups at highest risk for severe disease and provide critical inputs for vaccine cost-effectiveness analyses.' Last week, Kennedy announced his removal of all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. The move was made to restore "public trust above any pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,' Kennedy said in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. But he later replaced committee members with people who have been critical of vaccines. Kennedy had said his picks were 'committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense.' Havers' resignation follows the quitting of CDC Covid-19 vaccine adviser Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos and Melinda Wharton, a CDC vaccine official who oversaw the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.
CBS News
12 hours ago
- Health
- CBS News
CDC official overseeing COVID hospitalization data resigns after RFK Jr.'s vaccine orders
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who led the agency's network to study hospitalization trends from infectious diseases like COVID-19 has resigned in protest following Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s orders to change the agency's vaccine recommendations and the committee that makes them. Dr. Fiona Havers' last day at the CDC was Monday, according to an announcement sent by an agency official to her branch within the agency's Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division. They received the notice shortly after Reuters first reported on the resignation. "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 an email sent to colleagues before the announcement. An infectious disease researcher who has worked with Havers, and received her email voicing concerns with how the data would be used, described the resignation as the latest in the "dismantling" of the agency's expertise. "It's a big loss to the CDC," the researcher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told CBS News. CBS News sent a request for comment to the CDC about the concerns that Havers expressed, but did not hear back from the agency's spokesperson. Instead, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services responded. "Under Secretary Kennedy's leadership, HHS is committed to following the gold standard of scientific integrity. Vaccine policy decisions will be based on objective data, transparent analysis, and evidence – not conflicts of interest or industry influence," Emily Hilliard, the department spokesperson, said in an email. Havers had led the CDC's Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network, or RESP-NET, that collects and studies trends in hospitalizations from COVID-19, RSV and influenza. Her presentations of RESP-NET's findings have figured prominently into past meetings of the agency's Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices as they weighed updates to the CDC's vaccine recommendations. "Of all the work we have accomplished, I am most proud of how COVID-NET and RSV-NET hospitalization data, presented at nearly every public ACIP meeting since 2020, have been critical drivers of COVID-19 and RSV vaccine policy in recent years," Havers wrote in her email. The CDC's vaccine recommendations are closely watched by doctors and health authorities because they are tied to federal policies enabling access to vaccines, including liability protections and requirements for insurance coverage. Usually, the ACIP deliberates and votes on updated recommendations, which are later adopted by the CDC director. In an unprecedented move this year, Kennedy bypassed the process to order his own changes. In late May, Kennedy first ordered narrowing the guidance to exclude children and pregnant women without other underlying health conditions, sidestepping an ACIP process that had been already underway to discuss changing the recommendations. He then fired the current roster of ACIP members in June — in what he described as a "clean sweep" of the panel — as well as removed the agency officials who oversee the panel's vetting and agenda. In a viewpoint published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the 17 members of the panel fired by Kennedy denounced the health secretary for "dismantling the process by which vaccines have been recommended." "As former ACIP members, we are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale, may roll back the achievements of US immunization policy, impact people's access to lifesaving vaccines, and ultimately put US families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses," they wrote. Kennedy later replaced the panel with a list of picks that included several allies of the health secretary and opponents of recommendations for COVID-19 and some other vaccines. The committee's new membership is set to meet next week to vote on updated vaccine recommendations for COVID-19 and RSV, among other diseases.
Washington Post
16 hours ago
- Health
- Washington Post
CDC virus expert resigns after RFK Jr.'s purge of vaccine advisers
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.
