Monarez

WASHINGTON — America’s public health system is headed to a “very dangerous place” with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team of anti-vaccine advisors in charge, fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Susan Monarez warned senators on Wednesday.

Describing extraordinary turmoil inside the nation’s health agencies, Monarez and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry described exchanges in which Kennedy or political advisors rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Monarez, who was fired after just 29 days on the job following disagreements with Kennedy, told senators deadly diseases like polio and whooping cough, long contained, are poised to make a comeback in the U.S.

“I believe preventable diseases will return, and I believe we will have our children harmed by things they don’t need to be harmed by,” Monarez said before the Senate health committee.

Monarez describes her firing by RFK Jr.

Monarez said she was ordered by Kennedy to resign if she did not sign off on new vaccine recommendations, which are expected to be released later this week by an advisory panel that Kennedy has stocked with medical experts and vaccine skeptics. She said that when she asked for data or science to back up Kennedy’s request to change the childhood vaccination schedule, he offered none.

She added that Kennedy told her “he spoke to the president every day about changing the childhood vaccination schedule.”

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician who chairs the powerful health committee, listened intently as Monarez and Houry described conversations with Kennedy and his advisers.

“To be clear, he said there was not science or data, but he still expected you to change schedule?” Cassidy asked.

Cassidy carefully praised President Trump for his commitment to promoting health policies but made it clear he was concerned about the circumstances surrounding Monarez’s removal.

Houry, meanwhile, described similar exchanges with Kennedy’s political advisors, who took an unprecedented role in preparing materials for meetings of the CDC’s advisory vaccine panel.

Ahead of this week’s meeting of the panel, Houry offered to include data around the hepatitis B shot that is administered to newborns to prevent spread of the deadly disease from the mother. She said a Kennedy advisor dismissed the data as biased because it might support keeping the shots on the schedule.

“You’re suggesting that they wanted to move away from the birth dose, but they were afraid that your data would say that they should retain it?” Cassidy asked.

Critical vaccine decisions are ahead

During the Senate hearing, Democrats, all of whom opposed Monarez’s nomination, also questioned Kennedy’s motives for firing Monarez, who was approved for the job unanimously by Republicans.

“Frankly, she stood up for protecting the well-being of the American people, and for that reason she was fired,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats.

Monarez said it was both her refusal to sign off on new vaccination recommendations without scientific evidence and her unwillingness to fire high-ranking career CDC officials without cause that led to her ousting.

Kennedy has denied Monarez’s accusations that he ordered “rubber-stamped” vaccine recommendations but has acknowledged he demanded firings. He has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy,” a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney.

While Senate Republicans have been mostly loath to challenge Trump or even Kennedy, many of them have expressed concerns about the lack of availability of COVID-19 vaccines and the health department’s decisions to scale back some childhood vaccines.

Others have backed up Kennedy’s distrust of the nation’s health agencies.

Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, a doctor, aggressively questioned Monarez about her “philosophy” on vaccines as she explained that her decisions were based on science. Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Trump was elected to make change and suggested Monarez’s job was to be loyal to Kennedy.

“America needs better than this,” Tuberville said.

The Senate hearing was taking place just a day before the vaccine panel starts its two-day session in Atlanta to discuss shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox. It’s unclear how the panel might vote on the recommendations, though members have raised doubts about whether hepatitis B shots administered to newborns are necessary and have suggested COVID-19 recommendations should be more restricted.

The CDC director must endorse those recommendations before they become official. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, now serving as the CDC’s acting director, will be responsible for that.

“I’m very nervous about it,” Monarez said of the meeting.

Seitz and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writers Mike Stobbe in New York and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention left after less than one month on the job, and four top officials with the agencies resigned.

Susan Monarez, 50, the first non-physician to lead the agency in more than 50 years, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 29 in a 51-47 vote and sworn in on July 31. She served as acting director when Donald Trump became president again on Jan. 20 and was nominated for the top job on March 24. Dave Weldon‘s nomination was withdrawn because of the former U.S. House member’s questioning of vaccine safety.

For two years, she was deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, where she applied artificial intelligence and machine learning to health matters.

“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” a post on the Department of Health and Human Services’ X account said. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.”

The post also said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has “full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

NBC reported four other top CDC officials submitted their resignations: Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.

The CDC, which is part of HHS, had 12,820 employees in September 2024, but the numbers have thinned, including 600 terminated earlier this month. In March, HHS announced plans to cut 2,400 positions.

Monarez received three degrees at the University of Wisconsin: Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and a doctorate.

Just eight days after being sworn in, Monarez was thrust into a tragic situation.

On Aug. 8, a gunman shot at six buildings of the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, and one police officer died. The gunman, who died at the scene, had said the COVID-19 vaccine made him sick and blamed the CDC,

Members of the CDC union want lies about the COVID-19 shot’s safety to be strongly debunked.

“We know that misinformation can be dangerous,” Monarez said during a meeting, according to a transcript obtained by NBC News. “Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust. We need to rebuild the trust together.”

She was supposed to convene a meeting with CDC staff on Monday about safety concerns and security enhancements.

“Unfortunately, we need to postpone Monday’s event for an HHS meeting that I have been asked to attend in person in DC,” Monarez wrote in an email to CDC staff seen by NBC News.

Sources told The New York Times that Monarez objected to Kennedy replacing all members of the CDC advisory committee on vaccines. He distanced the entire committee of all 17 members, and on June 11 named eight people, including prominent vaccine skeptics and pandemic response critics.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices normally includes pediatricians, geriatricians and other vaccine experts but the new panel includes a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, epidemiologist and biostatistician, and professor of operations management.

The CDC recommends the updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine for everyone 6 months and older based on age, vaccination history and immune status. Patients and their families are urged to consult with their physician.

Earlier Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the latest round of COVID-19 vaccines, but new limits were set on which Americans can get them. The agency ended its authorization for the broad use of COVID-19 shots, clearing them only for patients at higher risk of severe illness, and those age 65 and older — or younger adults with at least one underlying health condition who would qualify.

Last week, HHS confirmed Retsef Levia, a vocal COVID-19 vaccine opponent, was appointed to lead a CDC subcommittee reviewing safety of the shots.

On Aug. 5, Kennedy announced HHS will terminate 22 contracts worth $500 million to develop vaccines for respiratory viruses using mRNA technology, including COVID-19 shots, after officials determined the “technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses.”