CNN host Abby Phillip was left stunned by MAGA panelist Scott Jennings for complaining about a top CDC official’s resignation letter.
Appearing on the network’s NewsNight, Jennings ripped into Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the departing director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease. Daskalakis was one of several senior officials to resign from the public health agency in protest against the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez.
In his resignation letter, posted to social media, Daskalakis accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of ignoring experts and that the politicization of public health “will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults.”
“The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people,” Daskalakis added in his note.
“I hear the criticism from this person,” Jennings said on NewsNight Thursday. I just have to say, he did use the term ‘pregnant people’ in his resignation letter.”
That attack drew immediate pushback from panelist Dr. Chris Pernell, a public health and preventative medicine physician, who shot back: “Scott, that’s a ruse.”
Jennings doubled down. “It‘s not a ruse. He really wrote it down… This guy‘s not credible to me.”
Host Abby Phillip cut in: “Scott, are you serious?”
“Come on, seriously?” Pernell added, clearly stunned.
Jennings repeated himself, saying: “He is not credible… Yes, he did write it.”
Phillip pressed again: “Of all the things that we’re talking about here—immunizations, vaccines, autism, research on communicable diseases, on cancer—and you are the most concerned about someone’s use of the word ‘people’?”
“Yeah, because you were just complaining about the politicization of science,” Jennings said.
The tense exchange came as Daskalakis slapped down White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said the official is “not someone we want in this administration anyway” as he “identifies pregnant women as pregnant people.”
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Daskalakis responded: “I have for my entire career been an advocate for the LGBTQ community… I find it outrageous that this 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,” he continued.
“So I accept the note from the press secretary, and counter that with: I don’t care.”
The post CNN Host Stunned by MAGA Panelist’s Attack on CDC Vaccine Chief: ‘Are You Serious?’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
