💥EXCLUSIVE: Retsef Levi hits back after attacks on his leadership from departing CDC officials
Several top CDC officials quit in protest, denouncing @RetsefL’s leadership of the Covid vaccine work group. Now, in an exclusive interview, Levi reveals what really happened behind closed doors.
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@TheChiefNerd
Dr Demetre Daskalakis, a top official who abruptly resigned from the CDC, posted his resignation letter on @X, now viewed more than 19 million times, declaring his position at the agency “untenable.”
He pointed to the new Terms of Reference for ACIP’s Covid vaccine work group, chaired by Levi, whom he attacked as a figure of “dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor” who had “ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.” blog.maryannedemasi.com/p/breaking-aci… @dr_demetre
What most people don’t know is that in the weeks leading up to his resignation, @dr_demetre had been working with Levi and other members of ACIP, locked in a tense tug-of-war over how broad the work group’s remit should be.
As Chair, @RetsefL pushed for a wide lens that would follow the evidence wherever it led. Daskalakis, on the other hand, pressed to narrow the scope of the review, and sought to populate the group with CDC loyalists intent on preserving the status quo.
Senior CDC officials, opposed to Levi’s broader approach, were reluctant to sign off on the Terms of Reference.
What really happened? What went on behind closed doors between ACIP and the CDC officials who resigned?
What did CDC officials (who resigned) - want to exclude from the Covid work group's Terms of Reference?
The CDC deployed its legal team in an attempt to intimidate ACIP into excluding vital topics from the Covid work group’s Terms of Reference — issues that urgently needed examination.
.@RetsefL, for his part, is not interested in taking pot shots or fuelling a social media brawl. But he is prepared to set the record straight. Levi was calm and deliberate, weighing his words carefully — but there was steel behind them. The attack, he told me, didn’t faze him.
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blog.maryannedemasi.com/p/exclusive-re…
“I am just focused on the data now,” Levi said. “I’m not going to engage in personal attacks.
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