Bulwark Takes The FDA’s Vaccine Death Email Looks Like a Political Stunt (w/ Demetre Daskalakis)
Dec 2, 2025
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a public-health expert and former CDC official, joins to discuss the FDA's controversial 'vaccine-death' email. He critiques the email for lacking transparency and fostering panic. Daskalakis highlights concerns over the CDC's rewritten autism webpage, arguing it misrepresents vaccine safety. He also addresses the impact of changing ACIP dynamics and warns about misinformation regarding the hepatitis B birth dose. Throughout, he advocates for trusting local health authorities over political figures.
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Email Without Data Raises Red Flags
- The FDA director's email claiming vaccine-linked deaths was carefully curated but lacked supporting data.
- Demetre Daskalakis says the agency should release the underlying analyses and convene an emergency review if the finding is real.
VAERS Is A Signal Generator, Not Proof
- VAERS is a low-threshold, hypothesis-generating system anyone can use to report events after vaccination.
- Daskalakis warns VAERS cannot establish causality and other data systems must corroborate any safety signal.
CDC Page Rewrite Creates Doubt
- CDC replaced its definitive 'vaccines do not cause autism' page with language that sows doubt.
- Daskalakis calls the rewrite a distortion that borrows talking points from anti-vaccine sources to create uncertainty.
