Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a prominent out gay official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a former assistant commissioner of the New York City health department, abruptly resigned and criticized the Trump administration’s public health policies in a scathing open letter on Aug. 27.
Daskalakis’s letter coincided with a dramatic wave of other resignations at the CDC amid growing frustration over the administration’s approach to vaccine policy and other issues. On the same day, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sparked widespread concern by announcing new, limited COVID vaccines only authorized for individuals 65 years and older and those who face a greater risk of severe outcomes from COVID, as well as children who could get the shot after consulting with a doctor.
“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” Daskalakis, who was the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in his lengthy resignation letter, which was published on X. “The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threatens the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership.”
The resignations were announced amid reports that CDC Director Susan Monarez was being fired after refusing to change vaccine policy. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the health secretary, has faced growing criticism over his longstanding skepticism surrounding vaccines. Kennedy has falsely claimed that vaccines cause autism and that “there’s plenty of evidence” that HIV originated from a vaccine program. He has said “a lot of people” say HIV is “not a virus,” but rather “environmental” and “part of the gay lifestyle.”
Daskalakis, who previously served in the Biden administration as the deputy coordinator of the White House’s mpox response team, said he initially gave the new administration a chance and hoped to “brief the secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season.” But that never happened.
“We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the secretary,” Daskalakis wrote. “I am not sure who the secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us.”
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), whose membership base has already been shaped by RFK, will subsequently vote on whether to recommend the plan — but Daskalakis believes ACIP may be compromised. He ripped Kennedy’s decision to fire ACIP members without notice and install others without properly vetting them.
“The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader,” Daskalakis said. “Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve, not a political voting bloc.”
Daskalakis further argued that the administration’s “intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines” would plunge the nation into a “pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many, if not all, will suffer.”
Daskalakis’ differences with his now-former bosses notably extend far beyond vaccine policy. Acknowledging his longstanding role as a voice in the LGBTQ community, Daskalakis also criticized the Trump administration for attacking transgender individuals and reducing HIV/AIDS funding and services.
“I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision,” Daskalakis wrote.
In a sign of just how rapidly the resignations unfolded, Daskalakis’ letter was addressed to Houry Dr. Debra Houry, who was the chief medical officer of the CDC and was among the top officials who quit on the same day. Others included Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who was the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Jennifer Layden, the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
Even before he became New York City’s deputy commissioner for disease control, Daskalakis was known to immerse himself in the city’s queer community to better equip himself and LGBTQ New Yorkers. He provided HIV testing and STI screenings in bathhouses and sex clubs, and when he sought men in those venues to join a PrEP study, many of them did not think they were candidates for the HIV prevention medication.
“Seventy-eight percent of the people who qualified for the PrEP study didn’t think they needed PrEP,” Daskalakis told Gay City News in 2015. In 2021, Daskalakis was a grand marshal at the NYC Pride March.
Daskalakis’ resignation letter drew 14,000 comments in less than 24 hours on X. Many of the comments were riddled with hateful remarks, including mocking Daskalakis’ use of pronouns in signing his name. One comment by user @unhealthytruth calling for Daskalakis to be “tried criminally & put at the. front of the line at Nuremberg 2.0” drew more than 7,500 “likes.”
Daskalakis’ departure sparked reactions from health officials and government leaders who thanked him for his service. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who previously chaired the New York City Council’s health committee, said on X that Daskalakis’ resignation puts the United States in “unchartered territory” and described his letter as one that “will stand as one of the most important documents of the Trump era.”
“Dr. Daskalakis’ resignation makes clear that RFK Jr. is demanding CDC serve as ‘a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality.’ This is exactly what will happen to the Preventive Services Task Force if Congress doesn’t act. Congress cannot let the Task Force become another casualty of this ideological war on science.
Jeremiah Johnson, who leads PrEP4All, which fights for greater access to HIV prevention and treatment, also criticized Daskalakis’ resignation and the apparent firing of Monarez.
“The dual departures of Monarez and Dr. Daskalakis are a five-alarm fire for our nation’s public health and should spur immediate Congressional action,” Johnson said.
The CDC did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
