The most senior official to quit the CDC in protest at the firing of its director has warned against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “dangerous” plan—revealed by the Daily Beast last week—that could ban the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.
Debra Houry, chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and deputy director for program and science, abruptly quit last Wednesday along with three other top CDC officials.
That followed the firing of their boss, CDC director Susan Monarez, but the officials also complained about the health secretary’s refusal to engage on science and policy issues with experts from the public health agency.
In an interview with the Daily Beast following her resignation, Houry revealed her belief that RFK Jr. was taking his lead on immunization matters from the discredited anti-vax group he himself used to lead, Children’s Health Defense, rather than from experienced CDC physicians like herself.
When asked if she would be surprised to see Kennedy yank the COVID mRNA vaccine off the market altogether amid claims it is causing “vaccine injuries,” as reported by the Beast last Monday, Houry replied: “Maybe not, maybe not.”
Houry said she felt it would be “difficult” for the Trump administration to pull the jab altogether “right now,” because it still has approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA would, by law, have to prove the vaccines were unsafe.
But she added: “I think we have seen that policy decisions are sometimes made without science, and… there’s been a lot of things that I have been surprised at that have happened.”
Since March, the FDA has been headed up by Trump ally Marty Makary, who has questioned the necessity of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in some cohorts of the U.S. population.
In May, he announced that the FDA would narrow eligibility to people over 65 or those at high risk, and compel manufacturers to undertake extensive studies to determine the benefits for children and healthy young adults. That came into effect last week, with the support of RFK Jr.
Houry said that if the government were to axe COVID mRNA vaccines altogether, it would see an increase in the deaths of the vulnerable—including babies.
“If all COVID vaccines were gone, that would be devastating. What we would see is older adults, or those with multiple medical conditions, or young babies, would be more likely to die,” she said.
“Right now, the COVID variants aren’t quite as virulent as earlier, and as a natural immunity in general, just with some of the exposure… is more protective. Right now, in the U.S., people haven’t been that sick with it.
“But that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t happen. And so you want to make sure that you’re prepared. And if you don’t have vaccines, that’s dangerous.”
Following last week’s departure from the CDC of the five senior scientists, it was revealed that the federal agency responsible for vaccines had never briefed Kennedy, and that he had instead been receiving guidance from other, unnamed advisers.
One of them appears to be Aseem Malhotra, a controversial British cardiologist who is a senior medical adviser to the RFK Jr.-linked pressure group MAHA Action.
A personal friend of Kennedy, Malhotra told the Daily Beast last week that the Trump administration was planning to remove the COVID mRNA vaccine from the market “within months” due to claims surrounding levels of so-called “vaccine injuries,” which have been disputed by the scientific community.
Malhotra also revealed that in addition to RFK Jr., senior members of the Trump family—none of whom have any medical qualifications—were keen to see the vaccine banned.
Houry told the Beast there had been concerns among her and her CDC colleagues about who precisely they believed Kennedy had been taking guidance from.
She said: “I think the Children’s Health Defense is probably advising him, because Lyn Redwood, who [works for] HHS now, [is its] president emeritus.
“We [would] get questions sometimes from the department around different vaccine type[s]. And then we would look and see that the Children’s Health Defense had recently done a blog on something like that.”
Children’s Health Defense has a history of using social media and digital advertising to spread anti-vaccination messages to young parents and minority communities across the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it minimized the risk posed by the virus, argued that new vaccines were dangerous, and challenged public health agencies.
The organization has been banned or restricted on social media multiple times for spreading misinformation, while the Center for Countering Digital Hate has flagged the body as a major driver of anti-vaccine activity online.
Houry also pointed to RFK Jr. consulting “healers” in Texas over the measles outbreak, adding: “They’re people that used non-traditional science or medicine.
“So I guess that’s where, again, we’ve offered to do briefings several times and have not been taken up on that.”
Houry added: “It’s highly unusual. Under the prior Trump administration, I personally had briefed the assistant secretary for health, and secretary, many times. And they usually want to hear from our experts.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the HHS, the White House, and Children’s Health Defense for comment.
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