Monarez Accuses RFK Jr. of Trying to Corrupt Vaccine Policy Process

In dramatic testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Wednesday, September 17, Susan Monarez, Ph.D., who served as Director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) until Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired her on August 28, told senators that she was fired for “holding the line on scientific integrity,” accusing Secretary Kennedy of unethical decision-making around vaccines. Her testimony came two weeks after Secretary Kennedy had appeared before the Senate Finance Committee. During that Sep. 4 hearing, Kennedy had clashed repeatedly with senators, many of whom questioned both his integrity and his competence.

On Wednesday afternoon, Will Stone of National Public Radio wrote that, “In a much anticipated public appearance Wednesday, Susan Monarez, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, defended her short tenure at the embattled public health agency. She testified that she was ousted last month because she refused to cede to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s demands to pre-approve vaccine recommendations for the public and fire career scientists. And Stone quoted Monarez as stating that "He just wanted blanket approval. Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology."

Stone wrote that, “Over the three-hour hearing, Monarez repeatedly countered Kennedy's claims – which he outlined in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and reiterated during a congressional hearing in early September – that she was fired because she was not a ‘trustworthy person.’ Monarez described a string of events that she said eventually led to her dismissal, culminating with a ‘tense’ meeting in late August when she clashed with Kennedy over his plans for an influential CDC committee that issues recommendations on vaccines. According to her testimony, Kennedy told Monarez at the time that the ‘childhood vaccine schedule would be changing starting in September’ and that she ‘needed to be on board.’ ‘He was very upset,’ Monarez said. ‘He called CDC the most corrupt federal agency in the world, emphasized that CDC employees were horrible people. He said that CDC employees were killing children and they don't care.’” And she told senators that Kennedy informed her during the key meeting between them in August that he had "already spoken with the White House several times about having" her removed.

Per her removal last month, the Washington Post’s Rachel Roubein, Dan Diamond, and Mariana Alfaro noted on Wednesday afternoon that “Monarez’s testimony on Capitol Hill marks her first public appearance since the White House fired her in late August. She told the panel she was fired for ‘holding the line on scientific integrity,’ citing concerns about her ability to continue leading the agency while ‘preserving evidence-based decision-making.’ Throughout the hearing,” the Post reporters wrote, “some senators critical of Kennedy, who has an extensive history of anti-vaccine advocacy, sought to highlight what they believe is at stake: the potential for infectious diseases to reemerge and erosion of trust in public health. Some Republican senators allied with Kennedy pressed Monarez on the details of her meetings with Kennedy, casting her as out of step with the Trump administration and suggesting she was not trustworthy.”

Monarez had authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Sep. 4, in which she wrote that, “For three decades, I have worked at the intersection of public health, science and technology innovation—always challenging the status quo and welcoming discovery and change. Real science evolves with evidence.” In that op-ed, she had insisted that “The CDC can’t fulfill its obligation to the American people if its leader can’t demand proof in decision-making. If discarding evidence for ideology becomes the norm, why should parents, physicians or the public trust the CDC’s guidance?”

The Post reporters also quoted a statement by Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, who insisted on Wednesday afternoon that Monarez’s testimony included “factual inaccuracies,” and that her statements “leave out important details.” On X, the official HHS account highlighted testimony from Republican senators who were critical of Monarez during the hearing. “Here’s the reality: Susan Monarez was tasked with returning the CDC to its core mission after decades of bureaucratic inertia, politicized science and mission creep corroded its purpose and squandered public trust,” Nixon said in the statement. “Instead, she acted maliciously to undermine the President’s agenda and was fired as a result.”

Also on Wednesday afternoon, the New York Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote that “Dr. Monarez told the Senate Health Committee that she was dismissed after refusing Mr. Kennedy’s demands to fire C.D.C. vaccine officials and to preemptively agree to approve vaccine recommendations without seeing the science behind them. Another witness, Dr. Deb Houry, who resigned as the C.D.C.’s chief medical officer over Dr. Monarez’s dismissal, told the panel she believed Mr. Kennedy should resign, citing the deaths of children during a measles outbreak in Texas. Children, she said, ‘have died under his watch.’”

Stolberg wrote that “Some Republicans on the committee — including its chairman, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and vaccine proponent — appeared dismayed with the allegations raised by Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry. Mr. Cassidy, who has challenged Mr. Kennedy on vaccine policy, sought to frame the hearing as a ‘direct response’ to President Trump’s desire for ‘radical transparency.’” Further, Stolberg wrote, “Some Republicans on the committee used the hearing to repeat criticisms of the C.D.C.’s pandemic-era guidance on vaccines and other measures, arguing that has led to vaccine hesitancy and distrust of the agency. A few sought to undermine Dr. Monarez’s testimony by accusing her of coordinating with ‘anti-Trump lawyers.’ Democrats were more blunt in their assessment of the central issue. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is the committee’s ranking member, said Mr. Kennedy ‘listens to conspiracy theorists.’”

Stolberg added that “Dr. Monarez testified at length about the C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 of the committee’s members and replaced them, including with some who are also outspoke critics of vaccines. She told lawmakers that she feared that Mr. Kennedy’s ideology would cause preventable diseases to surge, harming America’s children. The U.S. has already experienced a measles resurgence this year, and whooping cough cases are higher than before the Covid pandemic. Dr. Monarez said Mr. Kennedy had demanded that she accept without question the recommendation of the newly reconstituted committee. She testified that she told Mr. Kennedy that ‘if he believed he could not trust me, he could fire me.’”

Monarez was not the only former CDC official to testify on Wednesday; Debra Houry, M.D., M.P.H., who had been the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer, but who along with three other senior CDC officials, resigned in solidarity with Monarez immediately after her firing, “said Kennedy has censored science and politicized the agency. She said Kennedy should resign,” the Wall Street Journal’s Sabrina Siddiqi, Jennifer Calfas, and Liz Essley Whyte wrote on Wednesday afternoon. “Under Kennedy’s leadership, flu campaigns were halted. CDC staff learned of the agency’s changes to Covid-19 vaccine guidelines in May from Kennedy’s post on X, Houry said. The agency’s experts haven’t seen a justification for this change, she said. Some CDC scientists fear for their safety after a gunman, who authorities said was critical of the Covid-19 vaccine, opened fire outside the CDC’s campus last month, Houry said.” And they quoted Houry as stating of CDC staffers that “They don’t wish to present publicly anymore because they feel they were personally targeted because of misinformation.”

Vaccination of infants for hepatitis B prevention is debated

The Post’s Roubein, Diamond, and Alfaro noted that, during the hearing, “Senators of both parties repeatedly brought up the hepatitis B vaccine ahead of a Thursday meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to reconsider the long-standing recommendation to provide the vaccine at birth. Such a move would mark the first major shift on a routine childhood immunization under Kennedy. Democrats and Cassidy blasted the effort, arguing it could reverse progress to curtail a serious liver infection Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) pressed Monarez on why newborns receive the shot — skepticism that Kennedy and his allies have echoed, arguing most children are not at risk. ‘I was open to the science,’ Monarez responded. ‘I just would not pre-commit to approving all the ACIP recommendations without the science.’

The Post reporters went on to note that “Cassidy, a gastroenterologist and liver specialist, gave a forceful defense of the hepatitis B vaccine in his closing remarks. He said the number of babies who get infected with hepatitis B has been substantially reduced since they began receiving the shot. ‘That is an accomplishment to make America healthy again,’ Cassidy said in reference to Kennedy’s MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] movement to address chronic disease and childhood illness. ‘And we should stand up and salute the people that made that decision, because there’s people who would otherwise be dead if those mothers were not given that option to have their child vaccinated.’”