From COVID to Hepatitis to Measles, RFK Jr. Is Gutting Vaccine Science: An Ex-CDC Expert Speaks Out
As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dramatically reshapes U.S. immunization policy, we speak with Dr. Fiona Havers, a former top vaccine expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who resigned in June. Last week, Kennedy’s handpicked advisers on a federal vaccine panel voted against universal hepatitis B shots for newborns, reversing 35 years of CDC guidance that all newborns receive the vaccine within 24 hours of birth. The Trump administration also recently altered the CDC’s website to include false claims linking autism and vaccines, in keeping with Kennedy’s spreading of vaccine misinformation going back decades. CNN is reporting the FDA is also considering putting a “black box” warning on COVID-19 vaccines. “This administration is causing a lot of confusion and is using, basically, the CDC to spread misinformation now about vaccines,” says Dr. Havers. She also discusses her decision to resign from the CDC and the chaos the Trump administration has caused at the agency, calling RFK Jr.’s changes a “hostile takeover” to advance “anti-science views.”