Former CDC Director Testifies About Being Fired, Pressure from RFK Jr

Former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Dr. Susan Monarez testified about being fired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

The Details: Monarez told the Senate she was fired “for holding the line on scientific integrity.” She testified that RFK Jr. demanded that she sign off on new vaccine recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before she was given scientific evidence backing them up and that she “dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy, without cause.” RFK Jr.’s spokesperson countered that she was fired because she “acted maliciously to undermine the president’s agenda.”

For Context: Monarez said RFK Jr. plans to change the childhood vaccine schedule in September, but that “there was no science or evidence” backing the change. The new schedule will remove the recommendation for infants to receive the hepatitis B vaccine. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician, said that the vaccine has reduced the number of infected children “from 20,000 cases to around 20” each year.

Key Quotes: Monarez said, “I could have stayed silent, agreed to the demands, and no one would have known. What the public would have seen were scientists dismissed without cause and vaccine protections quietly eroded, all under the authority of a Senate-confirmed director with unimpeachable credentials. I could have kept the office, the title, but I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced: my integrity.”

How the Media Covered It: New York Times (Lean Left bias) wrote that “Dr. Monarez painted a picture of the health secretary as a man wedded to his own ideology and uninterested in government scientists.” Fox News (Right) focused on a tense moment between Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Monarez in which the three interrupted each other in conversation about the hepatitis B vaccine. BBC (Center) wrote that RFK Jr. “has been criticized by health groups and scientists, as well as former health secretaries from both parties,” but also included statements from RFK Jr.

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