Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said a gay leader at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who resigned last week in protest of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had “no business being in government” due to the “lifestyle” he led.
Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was among the four CDC leaders who resigned last week, saying in their resignations that the changes under Kennedy were preventing them from carrying out the agency’s public health mission.
“One of the guys that is the biggest proponent of doing all this is the guy who describes the risky behavior that he and his lifestyle involve,” Paul said when asked about the exodus in CDC leadership Tuesday evening, referring to Daskalakis.
Paul was discussing his opposition to infant vaccinations against hepatitis B when asked.
“A guy that is so far … out of the mainstream, I think most people in America would discount his opinion because of the things he said in the past. He does not represent the mainstream of anything in America,” Paul continued.
“He should have never had a position in government. And he brags about his lifestyle, you know, this whole idea of bondage and, you know, multiple partners and all that stuff. He brags about that stuff, but he’s got no business being in government. It’s good riddance.”
GOP Rep. Buddy Carter (Ga.) has also criticized Daskalakis for his personal life, calling him a “BDSM Satan worshipper” on CNN on Sunday.
Since resigning, Daskalakis has forcefully spoken out against Kennedy in the media, saying in an interview Sunday that he can “only see harm coming” from the secretary’s policies. He has specifically criticized actions by the Health and Human Services Department that limit access to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
In 2021, Daskalakis posed for the cover of Plus Magazine wearing a leather harness, an article of clothing popular among gay men and tied to the gay leather and BDSM communities. The cover and other posts Daskalakis made on social media have come under scrutiny in conservative media since his resignation.
Daskalakis came to wider public recognition when he led the CDC’s response to the 2022 mpox outbreak that primarily affected the social networks of men who have sex with men.
Other former CDC directors also came out against Kennedy in a New York Times op-ed published Monday
“What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced,” they wrote.
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