Citing radical non-transparency, unskilled manipulation of data, and people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor, the out top official for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, resigned Wednesday afternoon.After much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people, Daskalakis said in a searing condemnation of the current administrations stewardship of the nations public health agencies. Related RFK Jr.: Were researching if gender-affirming meds cause school shootings Enough is enough, he wrote.Daskalakis came to public prominence as head of the Biden administrations Mpox outbreak response in 2022, which employed a successful strategy of Education and outreach, as well as vaccination based on hard data. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Infections dont heed orders, he told LGBTQ Nation at the time.Summing up months of frustration with Kennedy and other administration officials, Daskalakis said, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people.Under Kennedys guidance, the CDC is now a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the publics health, he said.The longtime public health expert shared that since Kennedy took over HHS, Daskalakis and his team have never been consulted. We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary,he said. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us.Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS uses over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources.Like the president, Kennedy has circumvented traditional, fact-based analysis and policy formulation with politically motivated prescriptions for public health by tweet, Daskalakis asserted.Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page-long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function, he wrote. Daskalakis described Kennedy as a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader and warned that the intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines, favoring natural infection and unproven remedies, will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many, if not all, will suffer.Alluding to the presidents obsession with good genes, Daskalakis asserted that eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.Daskalakis resignation, effective today, comes amid a flurry of departures from HHS. On Wednesday, CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired after less than a month on the job for refusing to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives from Kennedy, according to her lawyers. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry, to whom Daskalakis addressed his own resignation letter, and National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Daniel Jernigan announced their resignations soon after Monarez was fired.Daskalakis, 51, has been a longtime champion for LGBTQ+ health. He served as deputy health commissioner in New York City at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, employing aggressive outreach to the LGBTQ+ community, and then as director of the CDCs Division of HIV and AIDS Prevention under President Joe Biden.Hes also been a target of the far-right for his public and enthusiastic identification with the community: his tattoos and leather kit have earned scorn and praise from both in equal measure. Daskalakis rang out his resignation letter, acknowledging the threat the administration poses to the LGBTQ+ community and diversity more broadly.For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics, Daskalakis shared.I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision.Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, Daskalakis concluded, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nations health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.