A top coronavirus vaccine adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has resigned, citing concerns that she could no longer help vulnerable people after federal health officials rescinded long-standing recommendations to immunize children and pregnant women.
Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos said in an email to colleagues Tuesday that she made a “personal decision” to quit the CDC after 12 years.
“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, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.
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She said she made her decision Friday. Her email did not further detail her reasons for leaving. It came days after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other health agency leaders said they would stop recommending coronavirus shots for healthy children and pregnant women.
Panagiotakopoulos declined to comment.
Reuters first reported her resignation. The White House and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Panagiotakopoulos co-led a coronavirus vaccine work group of CDC staff and outside experts who assisted the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP, in crafting guidance for the shots.
She organized regular meetings of the group, making sure enough data was available and different points of views were represented, according to people familiar with her role who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about agency operations. The group reviews vaccine safety and effectiveness data and the epidemiology of the coronavirus to assess the risks and benefits of the shots.
William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases expert at Vanderbilt University and member of the work group, said many ACIP members had sent Panagiotakopoulos “expressions of understanding, empathy and support.”
The committee is scheduled to meet later this month and vote on a coronavirus vaccine recommendation. In an April meeting, panel members signaled that they were already inclined to shift from a broad recommendation that everyone 6 months and older get an annual coronavirus vaccine to one advising the shots for those at highest risk. Pregnant women are considered at elevated risk if they contract covid.
But Kennedy upended the long-established process for providing immunization advice through expert review and CDC guidance last week when he announced on X that health officials would no longer recommend the coronavirus vaccine for healthy pregnant women and healthy children.
Kennedy blindsided CDC officials, who found out about the decision through the X post. The changes were not immediately reflected on the agency’s website, which continued to recommend that everyone 6 months and older receive an annual coronavirus vaccination.
Late Thursday, the CDC contradicted Kennedy in updated guidance that continued to recommend the shots for healthy children if their doctors approve. But the revisions also said the vaccines are no longer advised during pregnancy.
Federal health officials have said pregnant women can consult their doctors if they want coronavirus vaccines. But eliminating vaccine recommendations by the CDC can result in insurers no longer covering the costs and fewer providers stocking them, according to vaccine experts.
Professional societies that many patients and physicians turn to for independent guidance – the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians and Infectious Diseases Society of America – have issued statements criticizing the process and the content of Kennedy’s new recommendations.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration said it would narrow its approval for updated coronavirus vaccines to those considered at elevated risk for severe disease and would require additional trials to approve the shots for others. It marked a significant shift in the agency’s approach to green-lighting the shots.