WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official responsible for overseeing vaccine policy resigned from his position on Wednesday, shortly after the agency director, Susan Monarez, was fired.

Monarez held the job as director for less than one month, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not provide an immediate reason for why she is no longer with the agency.

Demetre Daskalakis, who was the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, said his reason for resigning involved conflicting views with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that "challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough."

"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," he continued in the letter posted on X.

Daskalakis also criticized "the lack of communication" by HHS and CDC leadership before announcing "major policy changes without prior notice," which, he said, forces officials to "retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts."

"Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC," he said.

He added that seven months into the new administration, a CDC subject matter expert from his center has never been briefed by the Secretary.

“I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us,” he continued. “Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources.”

Daskalakis's resignation letter also blasted the "intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies," saying it "will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer."

He said the recent shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta was not why he was resigning, but to make his grandfather, "who stood up to fascist forces in Greece," and his legacy proud.

"I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed."

He concluded by asking HHS to "reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution."

Monarez, 50, was the agency's 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.

She was sworn in on July 31, making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the history of the 79-year-old agency.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.