By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) -A U.S. government scientist who oversees the team responsible for collecting data on COVID-19 and RSV hospitalizations used to shape national vaccine policy has resigned, citing concerns over how such data would be used by the Trump administration.
The scientist, Dr. Fiona Havers, told colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday that she no longer had confidence that the COVID and RSV data would be used “objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions,” according to an email seen by Reuters.
Havers, leader of the RESP-NET Hospitalization Surveillance Team, and the CDC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Her resignation follows moves by Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. 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 June 25-27 to vote on the use of COVID-19 boosters and other vaccines by the American public.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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