Susan Monarez stated she was fired from her position as Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention director as a result of she refused to associate with Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vax campaign.
Former CDC Director Susan Monarez
Testifying below oath Wednesday, Monarez stated that Kennedy advised her that she needed to preapprove vaccine suggestions from a vaccine advisory board that he stacked with anti-vaxxers or tender her resignation.
“On the morning of Aug. 25, Secretary Kennedy demanded two things of me that were inconsistent with my oath of office and the ethics required of a public official. He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign,” Monarez stated in her opening assertion.
The listening to was known as by Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor, and Pensions Chair Invoice Cassidy. The Louisiana Republican and skilled doctor voted to verify Kennedy regardless of his well-known anti-vax report, however he has since soured on the harmful quack.
Cassidy questioned Monarez in the course of the listening to, asking whether or not Kennedy had any science to again up the doable modifications to childhood vaccination schedules that he wished Monarez to rubber stamp.
“He did not have any data or science to point to,” Monarez said. “As a matter of fact, we got into an exchange where I had suggested I would be open to changing childhood vaccine schedules if the evidence or science were supportive. He responded that there was no science or evidence associated with the childhood vaccine schedule.”
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
However Monarez wasn’t the one ousted CDC official to testify at Wednesday’s listening to.
Debra Houry, former CDC chief medical officer who resigned in protest to Monarez’s ouster, added that Kennedy refused briefings from precise medical consultants on issues just like the measles outbreak, which has claimed the lives of a number of youngsters.
Kennedy is infamous for being an anti-vax crusader.
Since taking the reins of HHS, Kennedy has unfold harmful misinformation and pushed for modifications to vaccine suggestions that precise docs say places public well being in danger.
A brand new KFF ballot for the Washington Put up discovered that 1 in 6 mother and father both delayed giving their youngster a vaccine or refused to vaccinate them altogether, growing the chance of preventable ailments spreading.
However whereas anti-vaxxers are a rising faction of the nation, a majority of voters—together with Trump supporters—really assist vaccines.
What’s extra, a brand new YouGov ballot launched Wednesday discovered that Kennedy is the least standard member of Trump’s cupboard, with a internet approval score that’s 14 factors underwater.
Which means it’s doable that Trump’s embrace of Kennedy might damage him and the GOP, serving to give Democrats a leg up within the 2026 midterm elections.
