Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, one of the nation’s most visible public health leaders and a longtime trusted voice for LGBTQ+ communities, has resigned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He denounced what he describes as a wholesale dismantling of science under President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Daskalakis posted his blistering resignation letter on X and Instagram on Wednesday evening. In it, he said he would step down as director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on Thursday, citing irreconcilable ethical and scientific concerns.
I never understand how this helps anything. “Things are so bad here that I’m going to leave and let someone on the side of chaos take over!”
Because they don’t want to be personally or professionally liable for the disaster.
And this government is likely to pull some bullshit if they were to speak out from their position.
For actually qualified people and experts in the field it is a balance act between being able to push back against dangerous or stupid policies and legitimizing those stupid and/or dangerous policies by having your name associated with them. I guess the balance finally tipped for him.
It’s no fun trying to achieve things in an environment where everything is working against you. It can be, and often is, harmful
No, I understand the feeling. “No matter how hard I work, they’re actively working towards sabotaging my efforts and they have the final word on everything. They control public comm, so they can constantly lie while officially representing the rest of us.”
It’s resignation or depression/burn out.
It’s naive and easy to just say he could have fought this from inside. What do you think he tried to do in the past months?
Its hard to work your whole life around something without caring. Its easy to say just fuck around.