Richard Besser, the former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says he “can’t look” to the CDC for trustworthy medical information on Sunday.
“My biggest takeaway as a doctor is that I can’t look to the CDC anymore for the trusted information,” Besser said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m going to need to look to medical societies and other groups to provide that information.
Besser’s comments came in reference to the CDC’s 12-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voting unanimously Thursday to update federal COVID-19 vaccine guidance to recommend people talk to a clinician before taking the vaccine.
The panel also voted against a motion to require a prescription to receive the vaccine.
Besser, currently the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, served as acting CDC director from January 2009 to June 2009.
In a Sept. 1 New York Times op-ed he co-authored with eight former CDC directors, Besser criticized the direction of the agency under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Last month, Kennedy and the White House ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez after she refused to preapprove the aforementioned vaccine panel’s recommendations.
“The loss of Dr. Monarez and other top leaders will make it far more difficult for the C.D.C. to do what it has done for about 80 years: work around the clock to protect Americans from threats to their lives and health,” the op-ed said.
Besser again ripped Kennedy for “instilling mistrust in vaccines” and said that ACIP’s updated guidance will prevent individuals and families from making “an informed choice” on whether to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“What this process over these two days did was it instilled doubt in a lot of people who didn’t have doubt,” Besser added. “And it’s going to lead people who were trying to do the right thing for their families, for their children, to make wrong decisions.”
