A senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned Tuesday from her leadership role in shaping COVID-19 vaccine policy, following a controversial directive issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that rewrote longstanding CDC guidance without committee approval.
Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and one of the leads of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) COVID-19 vaccines work group, announced her resignation via email to colleagues early Tuesday morning. "My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population, and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role," she wrote.
Her departure comes as the CDC faces internal and external backlash after Kennedy's announcement that the agency would stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women-two groups that had previously been advised to remain vaccinated due to elevated risks. Multiple federal health officials told CBS News the change bypassed the usual scientific review process and blindsided many within the agency.
Panagiotakopoulos had helped lead the internal discussions on adjusting COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, which were scheduled for an ACIP vote later this month. According to several members of the committee, there had already been internal consensus to soften guidance for healthy children without underlying conditions. However, Kennedy's directive went further, unilaterally excluding pregnant women from vaccination recommendations.
That move has been met with alarm from many in the medical community, as pregnant women have historically been considered at higher risk of severe COVID-19. "More of us should be resigning in protest," one unnamed federal health official told CBS News in response to the change.
Kennedy's policy announcement appeared on social media before many CDC officials were informed through formal channels, according to multiple reports. Days later, the CDC updated its public-facing recommendations, stating that COVID-19 vaccines "may" still be administered to healthy children over six months old but only in consultation with a health care provider. Pregnant women, however, were no longer mentioned in the guidance.
Panagiotakopoulos has spent nearly a decade at the CDC. As part of the agency's COVID-19 response, she helped establish a vaccine safety registry for pregnant women, according to a professional biography. Neither she nor the CDC immediately responded to requests for comment.
