HHS Fires Official Who Opposed Widely Used COVID Shots

A top biosecurity adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, who believed messenger RNA COVID vaccines should be taken off the market, was fired over the weekend, multiple outlets reported Tuesday.

Dr. Steven Hatfill, a senior adviser at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), has been fired after six months in the role. Hatfill had advocated for unproven COVID-19 treatments such as hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic, the reports said.

A senior HHS official told The New York Times that Hatfill was dismissed for allegedly misrepresenting himself as “chief medical officer” for ASPR and for supposedly acting outside department coordination.

But Hatfill flatly denied the accusation, telling the Times the charge was false and politically motivated. He said his firing was part of what he called “a coup to overthrow Mr. Kennedy” — a reference to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — allegedly led by Kennedy’s own chief of staff, Matt Buckham.

According to Hatfill, Buckham informed him that “the secretary wants to go in a different direction” and asked him to resign. Hatfill refused, insisting the department would have to fire him if it wanted him gone.

ASPR, a division of HHS, leads the nation's medical and public health preparedness for and response to disasters and public health emergencies.

Before COVID-19, Hatfill was best known for being wrongly identified as a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks. Federal agents surveilled him for years before ultimately exonerating him in 2008. The government paid him $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit over the ordeal.

Newsmax wires contributed to this report.