An official from the top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has now become an ex-employee by resigning from the agency on Thursday responded to Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, following the fact that she bashed him for using the term “pregnant people” in his resignation letter. She said at a press conference that, “One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as pregnant people, so that’s not someone who we want in this administration.”
The comment from the White House Press Secretary clearly referred to the resignation letter of Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, where he said, “the recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”
Alongside Daskalakis, a couple of other top officials resigned as well, in the likes of – Drs. Deb Houry and Dan Jernigan, who reportedly criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s changes to the vaccine advisory board of the agency, as well as other vaccine policies.
Their resignations followed the firing of Susan Monarez from the position of CDC director, amid situations where several changes are taking place within the health department. “I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” Daskalakis wrote.
My resignation letter from CDC.
Dear Dr. Houry,
I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business.…
— DrDemetre (@dr_demetre) August 27, 2025
Karoline Leavitt reportedly said – “If people are not aligned with the president’s vision and the secretary’s vision to make our country healthy again, then we will gladly show them the door.” Daskalakis, on the other hand, had the opportunity to respond to the statement by Leavitt on Thursday night’s episode of CNN’s “The Source” with Kaitlan Collins.
He said that he always has been an advocate for the LGBTQ community and “finds it outrageous” that the Trump administration “is trying to erase transgender people.”
“I very specifically used the term pregnant people, and very specifically added my pronouns at the end of my resignation letter to make the point that I am defying this … terrible strategy at trying to erase people and not allowing them to express their identities,” Daskalakis said. “So I accept the note from the press secretary and counter that with, I don’t care.”
