Fired CDC Chief Tells Congress RFK Jr. Eyes Bigger Vaccine Curbs

(Bloomberg) -- Former CDC Director Susan Monarez told senators that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking more changes to national vaccination policy and sought to ensure her cooperation regardless of scientific evidence.

“I cannot sign off on something before I see the data and the evidence,” Monarez said.

Monarez testified on Wednesday in a hearing called by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that confirmed her in late July.

Kennedy ousted Monarez from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a month after confirmation following disagreements over vaccine policy. During the hearing, she presented a detailed account of Kennedy’s ambitions to overhaul US vaccine policy, emphasizing a rare and expanding fissure between the health secretary and other Republicans who support the use of immunizations. 

The tension has accelerated in recent weeks, amid calls to nominate President Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for the Warp Speed efforts that led to the Covid vaccine.

Monarez said during testimony that Kennedy planned this month to change CDC recommendations for the childhood vaccine schedule, which is important because it influences whether insurance companies cover immunizations with no out-of-pocket cost to patients. She said Kennedy told her that he spoke to President Trump every day about changing it.

“The upcoming ACIP meeting will decide the outcome. Any potential changes to the childhood vaccine schedule will be based on the latest available science and only after the ACIP recommends it and the Acting CDC Director reviews and approves those recommendations,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a written statement.

The former CDC director also pointed to outside influence on vaccine policy. She said Kennedy asked her to meet with Aaron Siri, a close Kennedy associate and an attorney who represents people who say they have been injured by vaccines. Siri has asked the federal government to revoke the approval of a polio vaccine.

Monarez added that she was concerned political appointees at the CDC were seeking to move away from giving infants the hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth.

Debra Houry, former chief medical officer at the CDC who also testified Wednesday, resigned with two other senior leaders quickly after Monarez was fired on Aug. 27. In her prepared remarks, Houry said Monarez being “forced into the role of a rubber stamp” made it clear that CDC leaders “would no longer be able to defend their staff or their science.”

During testimony, Houry said that the agenda this week for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the vaccine panel at the heart of the Kennedy-Monarez dispute, was set by HHS political staffers Stuart Burns and William “Reyn” Archer.

When asked whether it was normal for political staffers to be involved in setting the agenda for a scientific meeting, Houry said “not for the past decade I was at CDC.”

The ACIP is slated to meet Thursday and discuss childhood vaccines including one for hepatitis.

In her prepared remarks, Monarez detailed the days leading to her firing three weeks ago, including that Kennedy asked her to preapprove all recommendations coming out of his hand-picked vaccine panel and fire senior leaders at the CDC. Monarez refused. 

“I could have stayed silent, agreed to demands, and no one would have known,” Monarez said in her remarks. “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.”

‘Did We Fail?’

The hearing is seen by some as a barometer of Kennedy’s standing with Republicans and President Trump. There have been few instances of the president’s party pushing back against his policies and appointees. 

In his opening remarks, Cassidy asked if the Senate had failed.

“Like what happened?” said Cassidy. “Did we fail? Was there something we should have done differently?”

Some GOP members didn’t seem thrilled to be there. That included Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who said before the hearing started that “there are a lot of things we could be doing today.” 

Ahead of the hearing, the Department of Health and Human Services said that the former CDC director “acted maliciously” to undermine President Trump’s agenda.

“Some of her biggest offenses include neglecting to implement President Trump’s executive orders, making policy decisions without the knowledge or consent of Secretary Kennedy or the White House, limiting badge access for Trump’s political appointees, and removing a Secretarial appointee without consulting anyone,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement on Tuesday. “When she refused to acknowledge her insubordination, the White House fired her.”

Earlier in the month at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Kennedy disputed Monarez’s claims, saying he fired her because she was untrustworthy. 

The Senate confirmed Monarez down party lines in July. She was the first Senate confirmed director after a legislative change following the Covid pandemic. Kennedy’s next nominee for CDC director will have to face questions from the HELP committee. 

--With assistance from Madison Muller and John Tozzi.

(Updates throughout.)

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