Public health officials have a long way to go before they regain the public’s trust, and a regrettable Thursday segment on CNN’s The Source showed just how little some in the industry and in the media care. Amid some weak questioning from host Kaitlan Collins, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who recently resigned as the CDC’s Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, trumpeted his use of the term “pregnant people” and his pronouns.
Collins teed up a clip from the day’s White House press briefing, “Dr. Daskalakis, you were specifically referenced today, during the White House press briefing. I'm not sure if you saw this, but I want—I want everyone to listen to what the press secretary had to say today.”
In the clip, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared, “One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as pregnant people. So that's not someone who we want in this administration, anyway.”
Collins then simply put the ball on the tee, “I want to give you the chance to respond to that.”
Daskalakis began with a digression into the need for experts to consult President Trump on various infectious diseases before finally getting to Collins’s prompt, “But back to the question. I mean, I had, for my entire career, been an advocate for the LGBTQ community, through my work in HIV, through my work in Mpox. I find it outrageous that this—that this administration is trying to erase transgender people. I very specifically used the term, pregnant people, and very specifically added my pronouns at the end of my resignation letter, to make the point that I am defying this terrible strategy, trying to erase people, and not allowing them to express their identities. So, I accept the note from the press secretary, and counter that with, I don't care.”
That’s the problem. He should care. As a public health official, Daskalakis may not like it, but it is true that many people will see a man of science include his pronouns with his signature and who refers to pregnant people as pregnant people and either ignore everything else he says or think he must be wrong because if he can’t get basic things like only women can get pregnant right, then how could you possibly trust him on other issues?
Likewise, Collins, as a journalist, has a responsibility to press him on these things.
Here is a transcript for the August 28 show:
CNN The Source with Kaitlan Collins
8/28/2025
9:21 PM ET
KAITLAN COLLINS: Dr. Daskalakis, you were specifically referenced today, during the White House press briefing. I'm not sure if you saw this, but I want — I want everyone to listen to what the press secretary had to say today.
KAROLINE LEAVITT: One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as pregnant people. So that's not someone who we want in this administration, anyway.
COLLINS: I want to give you the chance to respond to that.
…
DEMETRE DASKALAKIS: But back to the question. I mean, I had, for my entire career, been an advocate for the LGBTQ community, through my work in HIV, through my work in Mpox. I find it outrageous that this — that this administration is trying to erase transgender people. I very specifically used the term, pregnant people, and very specifically added my pronouns at the end of my resignation letter, to make the point that I am defying this terrible strategy, trying to erase people, and not allowing them to express their identities. So, I accept the note from the press secretary, and counter that with, I don't care.
