CHAOS at the CDC, as the new acting director has NO medical background

A flashpoint is expected in the coming weeks as a key advisory committee, which Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics, is expected to issue new recommendations on immunizations. The panel is scheduled to review standard childhood shots for measles, hepatitis and other diseases.

Two Republican senators called for congressional oversight and some Democrats said Kennedy should be fired. He is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on Sept. 4.

Kennedy has not explained the decision to oust Monarez less than a month after she was sworn in, but he warned that more turnover may be ahead.

“There’s a lot of trouble at the 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,” Kennedy said at a news conference in Texas.

The White House has only said that Monarez was “not aligned with” President Donald Trump's agenda.

Monarez’s lawyers said she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” She is fighting her dismissal, saying the decision must come directly from Trump, who nominated her in March. The president has not said anything publicly about the matter.

It's unclear if O'Neill, who was just sworn in as HHS' deputy secretary, will remain in both roles as acting CDC director.

Monarez tried to block political interference, departing CDC officials say

The saga began Wednesday night with the administration's announcement that Monarez would no longer lead the CDC. In response, three officials — Dr. Debra Houry, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis and Dr. Daniel Jernigan — resigned from senior roles at the agency.

The officials returned to the office Thursday to collect their belongings, and hundreds of supporters gathered to applaud them as they left the Atlanta campus. There were bouquets of flowers, cheers and chants of “USA not RFK.”

Daskalakis, who resigned as head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said, “I fear that children will be hurt by poor decision making around vaccines.”

“You cannot dismantle public health and expect it to still work," he said.

Jernigan stepped down as director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and Houry quit her post as the agency's deputy director and chief medical officer.

Houry told The Associated Press that Monarez had tried to guard against political meddling in scientific research and health recommendations.

“We were going to see if she was able to weather the storm. And when she was not, we were done,” Houry said.

Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC acting director, said Monarez told him that she had refused orders to fire her management team. He also said she refused to automatically sign off on any recommendations from Kennedy’s handpicked vaccine advisers.

“Dr. Monarez was one of the last lines of defense against this administration’s dangerous agenda,” said Besser, now president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which helps support The Associated Press Health and Science Department.

The CDC has long been the target of controversy, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the agency struggled to balance politics and public health.

The strife only increased this year with Kennedy elevating unscientific ideas at the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, while pushing waves of layoffs.

Monarez stands to become the shortest-serving director since the CDC was founded in 1946, exacerbating a leadership vacuum that has persisted since Trump took office. He initially chose David Weldon, a former Florida congressman who is a doctor and vaccine skeptic, but yanked the nomination in March.

Monarez was tapped next to lead the $9.2 billion agency while serving as its interim director. However, questions immediately emerged within Kennedy’s circle about her loyalty to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, especially given her previous support of the COVID-19 vaccines that Kennedy has routinely criticized.

We have money in America. What do we need science for!?

Senator Schumer will write a stern letter.

Only days until we find out what causes autism!

He's a Peter Thiel crony. They're engineering a mass culling.

I'm concerned.

But I still won't do anything about it.

At this point, we're no better than peasants who won't shit in a toilet because they think a witch will come out of it.

[quote] CHAOS at the CDC, as the new acting director has NO medical background

Is it a medical position or a managerial role?

[quote] Is it a medical position or a managerial role?

Ideally, the Director should have a background in both medicine and management.

It's the CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL, for fuck's sake.

You would think that being a doctor is part of the requirement for leading the department.

Ewww, O'Neill is a Peter Thiel follower who thinks ivermectin cures Covid

The former director probably told Kennedy that his conspiracy theories are dangerous and he went running and crying to Trump.

RFK, Jr. must be genuinely whacko.

What normal, intelligent person who isn’t a doctor and/or a PhD, honestly believes they know more than those who are???

It’s insane!

If he were told tomorrow that he has stage 1A liver cancer, & he has a 99.9% survival rate ONLY if he has surgery, followed by 6 rounds of chemo, what would he do? Get a 2nd, 3rd opinion?

What if every top notch oncologist told him the exact same thing?

What’s he gonna do? Spend 20 hours a day drinking Milk Thistle smoothies, or is he going to save his own fucking life by allowing the REAL experts to help him & save his fucking life.

I’ve been in recovery for decades. I’ve met plenty of whackos who have told me all kinds of shit about this or about that, & while I have politely listened to many as they tell me about their health challenges, and while I have looked into some alternative therapies when I had long term sobriety, yet my body was falling apart, due to a very high stress, corporate culture I worked within at the time, I heeded what my doctors had to say. I spent an entire year in and out of Cedar Sinai, having dozens upon dozens of tests ran on me, & I made it out OK & alive, because no matter what I read or heard about, I understood my doctors were some of the best in this country, & THEY knew how to treat me.

I loathe that this whack-job genuinely believes his own bullshit, & thinks he knows better than those who have dedicated their entire adult lives in the service of protecting the lives of others.

He has NO right to do this to Americans. He has NO right to tell us whether or not we can protect ourselves EASILY from disease.

How does this cunt even look at himself every night before going to bed? How does his fucking wife support this fucking INSANITY??? How does a man whose family imparted service & care towards the poor, think it’s OK to deprive others of health???

He should be fucking ashamed of himself.

No med school, no degree in STEM, yet he finds it appropriate & acceptable to place others at risk, for NO GOOD REASON.

Fuck this guy.

He’s a fucking menace to society, & he’s so personality disordered, that he just cannot understand what MASSIVE harm he’s about to inflict on poor, & working class Americans, all because he read some quack’s book or read some bullshit on the internet.

[quote] If he were told tomorrow that he has stage 1A liver cancer, & he has a 99.9% survival rate ONLY if he has surgery, followed by 6 rounds of chemo, what would he do? Get a 2nd, 3rd opinion?

[quote] What if every top notch oncologist told him the exact same thing?

[quote] What’s he gonna do? Spend 20 hours a day drinking Milk Thistle smoothies

That's what Ananda Lewis did!

[italic]AI Overview

Ananda Lewis initially pursued alternative treatments, focusing on holistic methods and lifestyle changes, after her Stage III breast cancer diagnosis in 2019. However, as her cancer progressed, she began to integrate more conventional treatments.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer that had already spread to her lymph nodes, Lewis initially refused her doctors' recommendation for a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. Instead, her initial alternative treatment plan focused on removing toxins and using natural therapies to "work [the cancer] out of her body". Her regimen included:

High-dose vitamin C IVs

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Qigong

Energy work

Prayer

Detoxification and dietary changes, including cutting out alcohol and sugar

Evolution of her treatment

As her cancer progressed, Lewis blended conventional and complementary approaches. Her comprehensive treatment plan came to include: Targeted low-dose chemotherapy, which she felt was less harsh on her body.

Cryoablation, a procedure that uses gas to freeze and destroy cancer cells.

Apheresis, a process to filter toxins from her blood.

Acupuncture to help with chemotherapy side effects.

An immune-boosting drug.

Later reflections

Lewis publicly shared her journey, admitting regret over her initial decisions. She specifically mentioned regretting her refusal of mammograms out of fear of radiation, realizing early detection could have led to a more manageable outcome. In a final essay, she urged women to learn from her choices and to pursue early detection.[/italic]

Bobby Kennedy has no experience to be the head of HHS. Trump has stacked the administration with flunkies and sycophants who have no experience and will do and say whatever Trump wants--and now the same goes for Kennedy.

By the way, don't think for one minute that the report due to come out in September regarding the supposed cause and effect that vaccines have on autism is going to say anything other than what Kennedy wants it to say. Even though it has been proven time and again by reputable doctors that there is no correlation, Kennedy will make sure that the report says that there is a correlation so that he can ban more and more vaccines.

It is suspected that the primary reason the recently appointed doctor as head of the CDC has been fired and replaced by this current flunky is because the fired doctor disagrees with Kennedy's forced and false autism findings that are about to come out.

My partner had gall bladder issues. Eight years ago, he went to a corporatish surgery center, had it removed, and lives with the complications.

My friend had gall bladder issues. She went to her holistic doctor, complained a little, tuned her chakras, and then dropped dead in the lobby of her building.

At her funeral, I met her sister, who had pushed natural medicine on my friend throughout her life. That woman is never going to get over the guilt.

Half of this country is out of their minds insane with their mistrust of modern medicine.

I don't understand it.

It's like they're living in the Dark Ages.

We were making good progress as a country, up until the 1960s. And then it all turned to shit.

White House says Trump fired CDC director himself because she was 'not aligned with his mission'

'Public health is in trouble,' says high-ranking CDC leader who resigned in protest (PBS NewsHour)

R15, my mom had her gallbladder removed decades ago.

Unfortunately, she’s had to deal with health issues as a result, primarily gastrointestinal issues.

The above stated, she’s on her way to hitting her mid 80s, & might even make it into her 90s, just like her mother, her aunts, & her grandmother, who all made it through their mid 80s to late 90s.

My maternal side of the family, especially the women, were tough old birds, so I expect another 10 years from my mom, unless her husband “accidentally” pushes her to the floor, & kicks her relentlessly and/or breaks a chair or a computer over her back… AGAIN.

[quote]White House says Trump fired CDC director himself because she was 'not aligned with his mission'

Yes, she wanted to [italic]save[/italic] lives.

Repig Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is no longer "concerned."....nor is she "disappointed." Susan is now ALARMED!!

“I am extremely alarmed at the firing of the CDC director…I see no basis for her firing. It is highly significant that her removal led to the immediate resignation of four other top officials who have served at the CDC for decades in some cases”

Susan is consistently, concerned, disappointed and now alarmed, but then she always goes ahead and votes for evil anyway.

The purpose of this is remove trust

The purpose of this flaccid gesture is to remove trust in American institutions.

Susan is extremely alarmed at Trump and his administration's illegality, misconduct and deceit, Susan consistently enables them.

Susan is always alarmed at what Susan has enabled.

See a pattern here?

Susan dear, has Trump learned his lesson yet?

Luigi!!

Shaky Sue, please go drown yourself in the Penobscot River.

Well, Suzie Q, when you vote to confirm a NUT, you are guaranteed chaos. RFK, Jr has been known as a complete ASS for years - that NEVER gets better.

You WILL regret this one, dear.

Exactly, R23/R24, which is why sane Americans want outta here.

These folks are decidedly & purposefully turning away from modern medicine/science, & its positive results!

One thing I will NEVER forget, is what was taught to me by my ignorant Great-Aunt, Araceli, when she used to tell me in Spanish, that the “Sciences will make great strides against us, therefore belittling the power of the Lord! Yet we shall resist against them, as the word of our Lord is true & best.”

I look back on those days, & heavily sigh. I’m also REALLY grateful I have enough intelligence to question MANY things, and I will almost always err, on the side of those who are experts, rather than those who deny the benefits & advantages provided to us via STEM.

All in good measure, yes, but all good measure SHOULD be available, to us ALL.

I don't think Europeans are still stinky. I've been on public transit all over Western and Southern Europe and have never noticed armpit stink.

Hmm, and apparently Joni Ernst will not be running again. Wonder if they'll put her in charge, and Everybody Just Fucking Die Already will be the official policy of the CDC.

I posted this on another thread. Dr. Daskalakis’ statement is worth reading.

Trump's administration is the most incompetent in history starting at the top.

And more and more it seems to be intentional r34. Put the absolutely worst and stupidest fuckers in charge of everything and sit back and laugh at the chaos and then, I guess, try fascism, although I suppose that will be done incompetently as well. It's just being assholes for the sake of being assholes, really.

This dangerous asshole idiot is already affecting COVID vaccinations in multiple states, even for high risk patients. I was trying to schedule my vaccination online for next week, and they're already blocked in North Carolina. Luckily I'm going to Maryland in mid-September, so hopefully I'll be able to schedule it there.

All during the pandemic, I heard idiots saying "my body, my decision, my life" about wearing masks, social distancing, getting vaccination, even with the non-mRNA formulation. Even if it meant exposing other family members, neighbors, friends or their community. Now it's my turn, jerks!!

I'LL decide about my health needs, based on my doctor's recommendations and medical standards. The lot of them can get any one of the diseases preventable by vaccination or modern medicine and die miserable, lingering deaths.

These people have zero interest in state rights & limited, federal governance.

They’re GHOULS.

Some of them are stupid enough to believe they & their loved ones will end up in heaven, & most of them don’t know, don’t care, & are willing to take their chances.

I know to my bone marrow I don’t have an afterlife, nor does anyone else reading this, AT ALL, NO MATTER WHAT! Once your CNS dies, so do YOU, & any bullshit article that pops up lately suggesting otherwise, is FULL OF SHIT.

AND THATS WHAT THESE FUCKERS ARE FIGHTING AGAINST!

They want all of us to believe that there’s a slim chance in hell, that hell actually exists, because EVERYTHING, EVERY LIE THEY TELL US, depends on us believing that LIE.

THERE IS NO AFTERLIFE!

YOU HAVE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!

Why the fuck are so many people living off bullshit fumes, when they can actually stand up, & make a true difference for their progeny & descendants?

Wanna know why???

Because they’re SELFISH.

These are the people you’d not want on the Titanic.

These are the people who want to live forever, but will easily exclude you from that same privilege, just because.

This is where America needs to wake the fuck up.

We’re battling against delusional people who believe they’re more special than others.

We’re dealing with people who view others as lesser than.

Shitshow

Thanks for that link, R38!

This is, indeed, a shit-show, & I’m at my mental health’s wits end, that this is happening to our once great country.

We’re just going to be soooo far behind from other countries that are fast tracking mRNA technologies for multiple treatment modalities, including treatment for various cancers, & preventable disease.

I just don’t understand why these people want to HARM us, rather than offer us the very best.

Sue is alarmed, but she’s still gonna do fuck all about it.

At this point, a Trump appointee actually having basic qualifications would be a huge surprise.

Jim O'Neill was involved in Peter Thiel's "seasteading" bullshit (i.e. the Libertarian islands)

The new guy is a Thiel associate and is involved in his treasonous movement to build cities in the ocean outside of US jurisdiction. I honestly believe they plan to unleash diseases to depopulate the working class. They’ll make medicine not just outrageously expensive, but ban it outright on a basis of superstition and paranoia. This is just to make sure that only the elite classes are safe from the real plandemic. Peter Thiel’s main goal is to live in a world where there are no disgusting and inferior poors.

[quote]Senator Schumer will write a stern letter.

Not only that, but his glasses will rest even further down his nose than it normally does.

Is I'm alarmed the new I'm concerned?

Look for diseases, gone for years, to surge in the coming years. I'm not sure if they are orchestrating a deliberate purge or just so fucking stupid to the point of devolution.

R46 behind trump's trivial self obsession and stupidity are people like this who are absolutely capable of such atrocities

Yes, R47.

There's a whole thread created just for that creep Curtin Yarvin, and his "Dark Enlightenment" crap.

It's evil stuff.

I don’t typically advocate bullying, but couldn’t the staff haze him until he gets the message and quits?

This is an instance where I would support workplace hazing

[quote] I don’t typically advocate bullying, but couldn’t the staff haze him until he gets the message and quits?

They're doctors and professionals, doing serious work for the entire world.

They're not thugs and criminals, like Trump and his cronies.

These doctors shouldn't have to worry about thugs coming in and making their life hell. Not with the important work that they do.

[quote]At this point, we're no better than peasants who won't shit in a toilet because they think a witch will come out of it.

I was once in a band called “Toilet Witch.”

Bernie Sanders writes in the NYT:

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is endangering the health of the American people now and into the future. He must resign.

He has called the Covid-19 vaccines the “deadliest” ever made despite findings cited by the W.H.O. that Covid shots saved over 14 million lives throughout the world in 2021 alone.

He has ridiculously questioned whether the polio vaccine has killed more people than polio itself did even though scientists have found that the vaccine has saved 1.5 million lives and prevented around 20 million people from becoming paralyzed since 1988.

Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger, and he must resign. In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a C.D.C. director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people, not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories." He has absurdly claimed that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”

Bernie is right about this

What's weird (well, part of the weirdness) is if I believed there really was a Deep State working against Trump, here's what I suspect they would do. First I'd get all the rural hospitals closed, through all the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Then I'd unleash old-fashioned, rarely seen anymore plagues targeted at those rural, backwater populations by convincing those dumbfucks to refuse all vaccinations.

Guess what I'm saying is between them, Trump and RFK Jr. seem determined to kill off the MAGA base, apparently just for the laughs.

[quote] Former CDC immunizations chief: ‘I only see harm coming’ with RFK Jr. leading HHS

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) immunizations chief Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said Sunday that he’s concerned with the direction the agency is going and worried about public health going forward.

Daskalakis, who served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, submitted his resignation from the CDC on Wednesday in protest following the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removing CDC Director Susan Monarez from her position. In his resignation letter, Daskalakis denounced HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership of both the HHS and the CDC.

“From my vantage point as a doctor who's taken the Hippocratic Oath, I only see harm coming. I may be wrong, but based on what I'm seeing, based on what I've heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they're really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination," Daskalakis told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

Daskalakis disagreed with changes to recommendations on who should get the new COVID-19 vaccine this fall, with the new dosage has been approved only for people aged 65 and up and children and adults with underlying health conditions that put them at high risk, creating confusion and uncertainty for people who want the latest vaccination who don’t meet these parameters.

Daskalakis said there is now no separation of political ideology and science with Kennedy leading HHS.

“I didn't think that we were going to be able to present science in a way free of ideology, that the firewall between science and ideology has completely broken down. And not having a scientific leader at CDC meant that we wouldn't be able to have the necessary diplomacy and connection with HHS to be able to really execute on good public health,” Daskalakis said in explaining why he resigned.

Former acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser, now president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told Raddatz he’s heavily concerned amid the major shakeup at the CDC.

“The difference is going to be profound. The CDC is an absolutely critical piece of the protection for Americans from any public health threat. Now, with the director being removed, senior leadership leaving, I have great fears for what will happen to this country the next time we face a public health emergency, whether it's a massive earthquake, a new infectious agent or, unfortunately, the next pandemic,” Besser said.

Besser also has concerns on how Kennedy's opposition to vaccine mandates is going to impact public health.

“When I think about mandates, I think about children going to school. I think about young parents who are sending their children to school and want to know that their children are safe, and the way children are safe from vaccine-preventable diseases is by getting vaccinated themselves. But no vaccine is 100%. And so you count on the other children in that classroom being vaccinated. I think with this secretary, we are on a path to it being largely parental choice, and that is going to put at risk those people for whom the vaccine didn't work and children who may have medical conditions where they can't get vaccinated. That is a major step backwards for public health,” Besser said.

Nine former CDC directors write in the NYT:

"We have each had the honor and privilege of serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, either in a permanent or acting capacity, dating back to 1977. Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the C.D.C., the world’s pre-eminent public health agency. We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations — every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump — alongside thousands of dedicated staff members who shared our commitment to saving lives and improving health.

What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced."

Bernie Sanders is a complete moron who has done incredible damage to the Democrats and is long past retirement age, but he’s absolutely right about what a danger Kennedy is to the people.

I should feel scared about what was posted at R57, but instead, I just feel sad about it.

This once great country has become absolute shit because of Trump and the people he has put in power.

I don't know if Putin is pulling the strings to try to destroy the United States, or what is going on.

But it just makes me terribly sad.

Is the director of CDC important someone above asked. They sure should be to the men of DL. In the end it’s the director of cdc that will decide the headline.

‘ a new disease a mjor problem yada yada yada etc for paragraph's” —- then a mention at the end of the CDC warning that says despite all the warnings it’s really gay men at most risk.

Or

A headline above the fold screaming to the world that those gay men are once again a threat to the rest while they practice yada yada yada.

Th next gay STD epidemic will be treated differently .than the former CDC did.

CDC has traditionally had a very close working relationship and were very protective of gay and bi men. They have gone out of their way to confuse straights in their efforts to protect the community.

How productive has cdc been?

CDC had just about every mother in the US with young children very concerned about their child catching what was almost exclusively an infection with gay men.

Monkeypox.

The headlines or language used to warn about monkey pox would have been totally different under this admin this HHS, this CDC,

Things can certainly get a lot worse

Protective above not productive

As in cdc has been protective …

R13 Oh dear!!

Bit like this other crazy bitch who thought Mumsnet could cure cancer (and AIDS)!

R61 = MAGAt Senator Roger Marshall:

"This is the same group of so-called experts that told the entire country we should live in fear of monkeypox, but failed to tell us that unless you're a homosexual man you don't have to worry about this at all, that monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease.

“The group of people that quit here have made an entire career studying sexually transmitted viruses like hepatitis and HIV and monkeypox. All they have is a hammer and they see every problem, you know, is a nail to them. That’s all they want to talk about, is vaccines."

Was the senator wrong. If so how?

Monkeypox in the US remained very much a gay male issues, it sure was not a lesbian problem.

[quote]Was the senator wrong. If so how?

For one thing, the CDC did not tell the "entire country we should live in fear" of monkeypox. The CDC was and is very clear about who should get a vaccine, and it's a very small subset of the American population.

I read a lot of cdc announcements on monkeypox they went thru a long list of we are all at risk and towels and how easy to catch touching etc etc and generally at the end of the cdc article a mention that gay men were most at risk,

I read a lot of forums that had upset and scared parents because they were confused by the cdc guidance. And people making a hard claim that MP was not a STD. Parents thought there kids were at risk.

This admin will lead the articles a different way. Right up front—-Gay Plagues they are back.

The old CDC protected. The new one will not.

A moot point about STD or not it was generally passed during sex from one man to another,

Not sure if this is good or bad news for the fatties here but CDC food borne illness surveillance program or system has been drastically cut back on the types of illness they will cover,

So if you get the shits and spend the night puking you can blame Trump for something else.

I now wonder how supportive the govt currently is for funds to find an HIV vax?

R64 in a way he is very correct.

CDC was once about controlling STDs thru changes in sexual behavior. Less fucking, more selective fucking, almost always condom fucking unless in a strictly one on one relationship..

CDC gave up with the gay male community since finally and after decades of trying they knew it would not work with gay men. So CDC changed stance and stared to advocate for using meds after getting fucked by a stranger and the truly main hope for a Vax that will take care of syphilis, HIV , GC, monkeypox, etc etc etc etc.

Meds and vax over behavior change and condoms. He is certainly correct about that and everyone that does or has worked in the cdc std program knows it.

I certainly do

CDC still advocates totally 100% for condoms when fucking outside a one on one relationship , no matter the antibiotics you are taking Most gay men I know will refuse to take that CDC advice.

In that they act more like RFKjr. They know better than CDC experts.

HHS is defunding hiv vax research in favor of funding ways to encourage lifetime lenacapavir use in the United States.

(Thanks to the defunding of pepfar, hiv infections and symptomatic aids will skyrocket globally)

In the 1990s gay men did use condoms and practiced safer sex. HIV dx dropped syphilis dx really dropped. Gay men will use condoms if there is a significant risk of death. The 1990s proved that.

That is one hell of a way to get people to use condoms. Body bags.