The 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, who were ousted last week, argued their abrupt dismissal has "left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened."

Fiona Havers, who oversees CDC respiratory virus data, told colleagues she no longer had confidence the data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy.

A Seattle infectious disease doctor, whose work was pivotal early in the COVID pandemic, shares more on her experience with the country's top vaccine advisory group.