[Applause]
Outside the US Centers for Disease
Control, more than a clapping out for
departing colleagues, a very public show
of solidarity against the Trump
administration. Senior leaders resigning
in protest at the dismissal of their
boss on what they say are political
grounds.
>> And what makes us great at CDC is
following the science. And so let's get
the politics out of public health. Right
now, when you look at the devastation
that's happening to our staff, our
campus, the programs, we won't forget
you. We're just now going to really
advocate for the great work you all do.
>> Susan Manarez was only weeks into her
job as CDC director when she was fired
on Wednesday. The White House saying she
was not aligned with President Donald
Trump's mission to make America healthy
again. But it was a clash with Trump's
Secretary for Health and Human Services,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that sealed her
fate. A former colleague who spoke to
Manares on Wednesday said she claimed
Kennedy had asked her to act illegally
by firing officials without cause and
unscientifically by endorsing
recommendations on vaccines that she
didn't believe were based on evidence.
Kennedy says he won't talk about
individual personnel matters. There's a
lot of trouble at CDC and it's going to
require getting rid of some people over
the long term in order for us to change
the institutional culture and bring back
pride and self-esteem and make that
agency the stellar agency that it's
always been. I'm very confident in the
political staff that we have down there
now that they're going to be able to
accomplish that.
>> But it is the political element that
worries senior health professionals
among them one of Manares's predecessors
in the job. This is unprecedented.
There has never been a CDC director
fired. And it appears that she was fired
for standing up for
saying things that are true and refusing
to rubber stamp things that are putting
ideology into the recommendations of
what vaccines our kids should get.
>> Kennedy has long been a critic of
widespread vaccination. This week, the
US Food and Drug Administration, now
headed by a Kennedy ally, issued revised
guidelines targeting the latest COVID 19
vaccines, now recommended only for those
over 65 or with certain pre-existing
medical conditions instead of the
previous yearly jab for children as
young as 6 months and up. Over the
summer, Kennedy also dismissed the
serving members of the ACIP, the body
that advises on vaccination practices,
replacing them with a more vaccine
skeptic panel due to meet for the first
time next month. Bernarez was quizzed
about the move at a Senate confirmation
hearing in June.
>> The members of the ACIP do need to go
through a thorough ethics review before
they are allowed to participate in those
critical meetings. What will you do if
the committee votes to remove vaccines
from the vaccine schedule or to not
approve new ones in opposition to clear
established science?
>> I will be um looking at how the ACIP
members are able to evaluate this
complex scientific information.
>> This week, Kennedy gave a window into
his own scientific method for discerning
childhood health. I'm looking at kids as
I walk through the airports today, as I
walk down the street, and I see these
kids that are just overburdened with
mitochondrial challenges, with
inflammation. You can tell their from
their faces, from their body movements
um and from their their lack of social
connection.
And I know that that's not how our
children are supposed to look. Concerns
are spreading beyond the US as well
given the CDC's global role in
vaccination guidance. Today, the
government here is announcing that a
chickenpox vaccine will be added to the
measel mumps and reubella jab from
January next year. But already only
83.7% of 5-year-olds have been given
both doses of the MMR, well short of the
95% global standard.
So, what effect might a shift in US
policy have on public sentiment here?
It's gone full circle because it came
from one of our doctors who was struck
off who's now very prominent in America
um and very influential um and naturally
across both sides of the Atlantic you
know lots of conversations happen. I
think we are influenced by American
culture as much as many other countries
are in the world. So yeah I think lots
of the misinformation has stemmed from
there.
>> This month has already seen reported
real life consequences of vaccine
skeptic messaging. A gunman firing
hundreds of rounds at the CDC building
in Atlanta, Georgia, killing a policeman
then himself. All of it contributing to
what is reported to be a bleak, even
tearful mood inside the agency. Its
incoming acting head has been named as
Jim O'Neal, Kennedy's deputy at the
health department, seen as likely to
bolster his boss's moves on vaccine
reform.
>> All right, here we are in the bowels of
the Pentagon for the Pete and Bobby
challenge. Earlier this month, Kennedy,
a proponent of testosterone as well as
blue jeans when it comes to workouts,
took part in a fitness challenge with
the defense secretary. 100 push-ups, 50
pull-ups. If so far his tenure has been
characterized by this sort of bluster
and eccentricity, in the coming weeks,
the consequences of his decisions on
public health may start to hit home.