Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is sounding the alarm on President Donald Trump’s attempts at overhauling leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warning of risks to public health.
‘These Fools Can’t Be Trusted With Your Health’
On Thursday, in a post on X, Warren criticized the Trump administration’s changes at the CDC, saying, “Donald Trump is purging the CDC leadership and putting in charge the guy who thought RFK Jr. was doing a ‘great job’ after measles cases hit a record high.”
Here, she’s referring to Jim O’Neill, who currently serves as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, working under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and has now been chosen to serve as the acting director for the CDC, following the ouster of Susan Monarez on Wednesday.
See Also: Trump Administration Plans To Pull COVID-19 Vaccines Off Market ‘Within Months’
Warren’s post is accompanied by a video snippet of O’Neill’s Senate confirmation hearing, where she pointed to Kennedy’s repeated missteps in recent months.
“In just the last week, Secretary Kennedy has made multiple inaccurate claims about the measles vaccine,” she said, adding that his department actively suppressed scientific analysis and cut critical support programs.
“Under his [Kennedy’s] leadership, HHS has censored CDC analysis on the importance of measles vaccinations. Canceled research on vaccine hesitancy and pulled funding that local health departments use to help parents vaccinate their kids,” she said, asking O’Neill if he was fine with these issues.
O’Neill responded, saying that he thinks Kennedy is “doing a great job,” and that he was “sincerely concerned about measles.” Warren concluded her post saying, “these fools can’t be trusted with your health.”
Vaccine Stocks Remain Under Pressure
Ever since the appointment of Kennedy as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, leading vaccine stocks have been under pressure.
Kennedy, who has been a vocal anti-vaccine activist, axed the entire CDC vaccine panel in June, because according to him, the panel had become a “rubber stamp for any vaccine” and was compromised by “persistent conflicts of interest.”
He then proceeded to appoint several vaccine critics to the panel, including Robert Malone, a prominent mRNA vaccine opponent, and Retsef Levi, who has called for their immediate withdrawal.
Early this month, the FDA decided not to renew Pfizer Inc.’s PFE authorization for COVID-19 shots for younger children, which comes just months after Kennedy announced that the vaccine will no longer be among the recommended shots for pregnant women and healthy children.
On Wednesday, Kennedy rescinded emergency use authorizations for all COVID-19 vaccines, including those made by Moderna Inc. MRNA and Novavax Inc. NVAX.
Two companies in the U.S. that make measles vaccines are Merck & Co., Inc. MRK, which is currently the sole supplier of the MMR or measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the country, followed by GSK PLC GSK, whose Priorix vaccine was recently approved by the FDA, as an alternative to Merck’s MMR.
| Stocks | Year-To-Date Performance |
| Merck & Co., Inc. MRK | -16.09% |
| GSK PLC GSK | +16.17% |
| Pfizer Inc.’s PFE | -7.55% |
| Moderna Inc. MRNA | -41.74% |
| Novavax Inc. NVAX | -11.55% |
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