Former FDA, CDC leaders warn that US vaccine policy is under threat

A US Food and Drug Administration official said last week that the agency would be changing its vaccine approval process. Aaron M. Sprecher/AP

Former US public health officials are sounding alarms about significant changes being made to the country’s vaccine policy under the Trump administration. Two public letters this week — one from former commissioners of the US Food and Drug Administration and one from former leaders at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — warn that health leadership spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a panel of recently appointed advisers are putting the public’s health at risk with a haphazard approach to vaccine science.

Last week, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s chief medical and scientific officer and director of the agency’s Center for Biolo