Fired CDC Director Says RFK Jr. Pressured Her to Blindly Approve Vaccine Changes

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez said she was fired from her role for not rubber-stamping vaccine recommendations from her boss, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., regardless of whether they were backed by scientific evidence.

Just two months after Monarez was sworn in to the job, HHS announced on August 27 that she was no longer the director of the CDC. She had been the acting director since January and was the first CDC director to receive Senate confirmation after a law took effect this year requiring the president’s nominee to receive Senate approval. Her ousting led to an exodus of top CDC officials from the agency.

On July 30, when Monarez was sworn in, Kennedy remarked that she had “unimpeachable scientific credentials” and that he had “full confidence in her ability to restore the CDC's role as the most trusted authority in public health.” Monarez, a microbiologist and immunologist, was previously the deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency within HHS that funds research for biomedical and health breakthroughs.

Senators on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions called Wednesday’s hearing to shed light on the events leading up to Monarez’s dismissal. “This hearing is a direct response to President Trump’s call for radical transparency in how we conduct governmental affairs,” said senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican and physician from Louisiana who serves as chairman of the committee.

The hearing follows mass layoffs at HHS and a shooting at the CDC in August by a gunman who was protesting the Covid-19 vaccine. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has implemented new restrictions on the Covid-19 vaccine in his short tenure. He has also removed every sitting member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, a group of outside experts that provides vaccine recommendations to the CDC and is scheduled to meet September 18 and 19. ACIP’s recommendations are often adopted by the CDC director and significantly influence state vaccination requirements.

“Today should not be about me. Today should be about the future of trust in public,” Monarez said at the beginning of her testimony.

She went on to say that on the morning of August 25, Kennedy demanded two things of her that she said were “inconsistent” with her oath of office and the ethics required of a public official.

“He directed me to commit, in advance, to approving every ACIP recommendation, regardless of the scientific evidence,” she said. “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. I responded that I could not pre-approve recommendations without reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis to fire scientific experts.”

Kennedy responded that he had already spoken with the White House several times about removing her, according to Monarez. “Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology or compromise my integrity,” she said.

Debra Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at CDC, who was one of several agency officials to resign in the wake of Monarez’s firing, also testified during Wednesday’s hearing.

“I resigned because CDC leaders were reduced to rubber stamps, supporting policies not based in science, and putting American lives at risk. Secretary Kennedy censored CDC’s science, politicized its processes, and stripped leaders of independence. I could not and in good conscience, remain under those conditions,” Houry said.

She also accused Kennedy of halting flu campaigns despite the severity of the 2024-2025 flu season, as well as spreading misinformation and promoting unproven treatments for measles.

Houry said she learned that Kennedy had changed the CDC’s Covid-19 vaccine guidance from a social media post on X. “CDC scientists have still not seen the scientific data or justification for this change. That is not gold-standard science,” Houry said, referring to a statement in May that HHS will no longer recommend the vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women

Monarez said Secretary Kennedy had not communicated his plans to change the childhood vaccination schedule to her until their meeting on August 25. Monarez said she told Kennedy that she would be open to changing the childhood vaccine schedule if the evidence or science supported those changes. Kennedy responded that there was no existing science or evidence and elaborated that CDC had never collected that data, according to Monarez.

Monarez said she could not agree to approving ACIP recommendations before knowing what they were. “I have built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access to life-saving vaccines to children and others who need them,” she said.

This Thursday, ACIP is set to discuss the hepatitis B vaccine, which has been recommended for newborns within 24 hours of birth since 1991. But the committee is expected to vote on removing that recommendation and delaying the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine until age 4.

Each year in the US, an estimated 25,000 infants are born to women diagnosed with the hepatitis B virus, or HBV, a serious liver infection that can lead to cirrhosis and cancer. Before the vaccine was introduced, nearly 20,000 babies and children were infected with HBV each year in the US. Now, fewer than 20 get the disease from their mothers.

“Now that we've controlled it, do we let the genie out of the bottle? If the recommendation goes away, and a parent does want the vaccine, insurance will no longer cover it free of charge. She’ll be forced to pay out of pocket,” Senator Cassidy said at the conclusion of the hearing. Vaccine coverage is typically tied to ACIP recommendations.

Cassidy was initially hesitant about Kennedy’s nomination as HHS secretary, given his prior statements about vaccines, but he supported him after, he has said, Kennedy promised to maintain vaccine availability and not undermine public trust in them.

ACIP is slated to discuss Covid-19 vaccines on Friday.