Doctor warns of consequences from CDC shakeup

So this crisis, this exodus, as it's been called, was triggered by this upcoming vaccine meeting, citing a real concern that RFK Jr. is going to present data that is not supported by science. Are you concerned, as an infectious disease expert, about what the Health Secretary is going to say? And how could that impact your own practice? Yes, I'm concerned. And actually, Senator Cassidy has called for a delay of that meeting. But to go back to what happened there, there was a panel of experts called the ACIP. They always advise the CDC on guidelines. For example, every winter, we need to know what we should be doing with COVID and flu shots. They were, in June, just fired, all of them. And then a new committee of eight people were put in, some of whom actually have declared that they do not believe in, for example, the COVID vaccine. So then going into this season, there's been a lot of questions that RFK Jr. is gathering safety data from not clear sources. And that meeting may not allow us to go forward and make recommendations for the American people on what to do with flu shots this season, COVID shots, who needs them, who gets them. We do need to be protected from respiratory pathogens this season. Yeah. The CDC, though, I remember we would talk almost every day during COVID. It was always the primary source for medical guidance when it comes to vaccines and, frankly, anything else to do with public health. Should the public still look to them for guidance, as a doctor? And if not them, then who? I mean, this is terrible when your government public health agency, you can't trust. But at this moment, the American Academy of Pediatrics has a whole set of completely different guidelines than the CDC does on vaccination of young children, for example, under two for COVID who've never seen COVID. And if they haven't seen COVID, it is good to have a vaccine. So parents don't even know who to trust. The government is who we should trust. So we need trusted advisors. We need consultants with long-standing credentials, infectious disease doctors to make infectious disease recommendations. This is political. This is influenced. This is not making sense. And right now, yes, I would say go to the guidelines for your either adult or pediatric guidelines. This is not at all how it should be. And we need people to respond to outbreaks. And that's what I'm very concerned about, that we need our premier public health agency to be fully staffed to work on what they're supposed to do, which is health. Yeah. I mean, I want to lean in a little bit more to the access to vaccines because both CVS and Walgreens say that they would be abiding by the CDC's recommendations when it comes to the COVID vaccine, which is an mRNA vaccine. It's important to note that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is canceling $500 million in contracts to develop these types of vaccines. And there are currently clinical trials that are showing great promise with mRNA vaccines and cancer. So what happens to those trials and further research with these vaccines that have been showing promise? Yeah, these mRNA vaccines have a lot of promise. Why? Because that can be developed really quickly. So they're the perfect thing for a pandemic. You want a vaccine within nine months, like we had during SARS-CoV-2. So what happened is the research was actually canceled at what's called BARDA for pathogens, not for cancer. Luckily, there will be mRNA vaccine research at the NIH for cancer. But pathogens. And one problem there is if you have pathogens, if you have an avian influenza outbreak, you want a quick vaccine. So it really doesn't make sense. We can't go by theories that are not proven. These vaccines do not cause mass death. Yes, we can have nuances of who to give the boosters to. I'm certainly pushing them for my adult older parents, not so concerned about my teenage boys. Yes, of course, we can have nuance. But that doesn't mean we just stop the whole program. And these pharmacies will not be able to give out vaccines for free unless they're on the CDC guidance. You'll actually have to pay for them if you are in a category that's not in the CDC guidance. So this meeting next week of the Vaccine Advisory Committee is very important. And it's why Senator Cassidy has said to delay the meeting. We need a meeting with RFK Jr. We need to see him on Thursday, September 4. Call him in. Senator Cassidy is a physician. And just try to understand what's going on.

Can you do anything as a doctor yourself to potentially combat some of this information that's coming out of the CDC right now, that it's not necessarily based on science? What can doctors like you do about it? We can certainly work with our own patients, and that's a one-on-one. But we actually want widespread ability. Thank you for letting me talk today. But I think that we need to have a platform. And this is, again, very unusual. We shouldn't be combating the government. This is unusual that we are asking for platforms to talk. But the Infectious Diseases Society of America is formulating its own guidelines, and I would just turn to those during the next 3 and 1/2 years. So what do you tell parents, though, that could be concerned that they're not going to have access to the vaccines that they have been able to access as a no-brainer from their doctors? Now, is there potential that they won't have access to those vaccines? And if they want them, where should they go? I think that to actually pull them completely would be so dramatic, I don't think that's going to happen. I think they're going to have access. The problem is you'll have to pay for them if they're not on the CDC guidance because insurance can just say, I'm only going to pay if they're on the CDC guidance. So it's very unfortunate that we would ask parents to pay for vaccines that used to be free. And I think that's the worst case scenario. I really, honestly cannot see a way that they would just pull COVID vaccines. But even having to pay for these vaccines, there's concerns that a lot of parents simply can't afford to pay for the vaccines. And are you concerned that there could be a resurgence of some of these epidemics that have been pretty much eradicated over the past 30 years? Oh, I'm very concerned. Measles is the premier example of this. Measles was eliminated in the United States. We just reached two weeks ago, the highest number of cases that we've had for the last 30 years. So I'm very concerned we're going to have a resurgence of childhood vaccine preventable diseases, if we don't, in a very calm fashion, tell the American public that vaccines are life-saving. They have profound mortality benefits. And there's just no doubt about their data. We can absolutely ensure that they're safe-- which they generally are, because they have all been tested. They all have been tested. But we cannot take the safety concerns-- which, again, they've all been tested. They've all been looked at for safety. There's no association between vaccines, autism, vaccines or anything that RFK Jr. is saying. These have all been completely debunked. These are safe, effective vaccines. Get your children vaccinated.