CDC medical experts are afraid to talk about vaccine safety

Washington – Medical experts from Centers for the control and prevention of US diseases are decreasing publicly about Vaccine security because they are afraid to become the objective of violent threats derived from conspiracy theories without foundation on vaccines, the senior officials of the CDC warned Wednesday.

“I have many who will not talk about vaccines now and I have eliminated their names of the documents,” said Dr. Debra Houry, the recently former medical director of the CDC, to the Committee of the Senate of Health, Education, Work and Pensions. “They no longer want to present publicly because they feel they were personally attacked due to wrong information.”

“I was subject to threats myself,” Dr. Susan Monarch, the recently former interim director of the CDC, told The Panel.

“I am very worried that the additional promulgation of deceptive information will undermine not only the safety and health of our children, but also exacerbate some of these tensions, the will to commit damage if someone is faced by the belief that people like us are trying to help them are not really trying to help them,” he said.

The Senate confirmed to Monaz to lead the CDC at the end of July, and had only been at work for a few weeks when the Secretary of Human Health and Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismissed her abruptly last month. She said Kennedy, who has fed the dangerous erroneous information about vaccines for decades, forced her to leave after she refused a rubber seal its non -scientific directives for vaccines and experienced health experts.

Houry, along with other senior health officials of the CDC, subsequently resigned in protest for the dismissal of Monaz. Houry had served in the CDC since 2014.

Both were called to testify on Wednesday about the politically motivated dismissal of Monarch and on the shooting last month outside the headquarters of the CDC in Atlanta. A lonely attacker shot more than 180 shots in the CDC building and then said it was to send a message against Covid vaccines.

Monarch told the senators that he fears for the safety of the CDC and their medical staff. As conspiracy theories about vaccines become more conventional and, as was the case in Atlanta, they can lead to violence against public health employees.

Kevin Dietsch through Getty Images

In response to Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Mentioning the 180 rounds shot at the headquarters of the CDC, Houry corrected it: they were 500 rounds. There were 180 who hit the building.

“Each bullet was intended for a person, and each one of my staff was very traumatized later,” he said. “He had staff who covered his children in the parking lot of the nursery. There were people who were on the shared trip when the bullets passed over their heads.”

Houry said that some CDC health experts are so afraid of being attacked with violence for talking about the safety of vaccines that have retired from giving presentations at this week’s meeting of the CDC vaccine advice panel, the CDC Advisory Committee. Historically, this panel of experts has developed evidence -based vital recommendations for the federal vaccine policy. But Kennedy recently purged the panel of his experts and loaded it with people who have questioned the safety of vaccines.

“Even at the ACIP meeting, you will notice that we no longer have our experts in the field they present,” said Houry. “It has been taken to a leadership level because we did it to protect our staff and scientists, so that they disconnect and their non -associated names.”

“So that they are not attacked,” he added.