U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who is running for Senate, defended Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday.
In a panel discussion on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Carter said people can get vaccines if they want to even if the pharmacies have cut back on administering COVID-19 shots, adding, “To sit here and blame Bobby Kennedy for limiting vaccines, that’s ridiculous.”
The Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID shots for the fall and placed limits on who can get the vaccines last week.
Under the new guidelines, vaccines are authorized for people 65 and older. People who are younger would only be eligible if they had at least one existing health health condition that put them at “high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19.”
But healthy people under 65 may face hurdles in receiving COVID shots.
In a post on social media, Kennedy said the “vaccines are available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors.”
Carter also excoriated Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, saying the doctor doesn’t care enough about children. Daskalakis was among the four top leaders who resigned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week after the ouster of CDC Director Susan Monarez.
“He does not need to be in charge of the vaccine program at the CDC,” Carter said. “He should have been fired long ago.”
Meanwhile, in separate Sunday interviews after their resignations, Daskalakis and Dr. Debra Houry, former chief medical officer at the CDC, said they’re concerned with where the agency is headed.
“I only see harm coming,” Daskalakis said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
He added, “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 ideologic direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination. They do want to see the undoing of mRNA vaccination.”
Daskalakis also pushed back against the new guidance on COVID vaccines, saying that many young children hospitalized with COVID had no underlying conditions in that age range and should qualify for the vaccine.
He said with Kennedy leading HHS, there is no separation of ideology and science.
In an interview on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Houry said Kennedy didn’t work with the CDC before changing the agency’s guidance on COVID vaccines.
“None of our scientists have ever briefed the secretary on vaccines,” she said.
Instead, she said she learned about the changes through a social media post from Kennedy.
Houry said under Kennedy it will be difficult to trust what the CDC is telling Americans about vaccines.
“We have a vaccine committee that’s scheduled in a few weeks, and that was one of the reasons why I resigned,” she said. “That committee is going to be staffed by people who don’t have expertise in vaccine science and other types of scientific methodologies.”
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