- Saturday, June 07, 2025
The resignation comes Robert F Kennedy Jr and other health agency leaders said they would stop recommending coronavirus shots for healthy children and pregnant women
By: India Weekly
PEDIATRIC infectious disease expert Dr Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos has resigned as co-leader of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) working group that advises on Covid-19 vaccines.
In an email to colleagues, Panagiotakopoulos said that her decision was based on the belief she is “no longer able to help the most vulnerable members” of the US population.
The resignation comes 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.
The move reportedly blindsided CDC officials, who learned of the directive from social media.
Panagiotakopoulos has been with CDC for 12 years and said her decision to resign was personal and gave no further details.
She was part of the CDC’s independent panel of vaccine advisers to review evidence for recommendations on Covid vaccines.
After Kennedy’s recommendation, the CDC updated the immunization schedule stating that parents of healthy children can choose to get them vaccinated with the advice of a doctor.
In the vaccination guidelines for adults, pregnant women have been removed, effectively leaving that group without formal guidance.
The committee is scheduled to meet on June 25-27 and is expected to deliberate and vote on recommendations for the use of Covid vaccines.
Many professional bodies, such as American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians and Infectious Diseases Society of America, have criticized Kennedy’s new recommendations.
