Fired CDC chief Susan Monarez warns senators that RFK Jr. is endangering public health

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. public health system is headed to a “very dangerous place” with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team of anti-vaccine advisers 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 Chief Debra Houry said Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, and his political advisers repeatedly rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Monarez's revelations to senators raised serious questions, even among some Republicans, about Kennedy's self-professed commitment to employ “gold-standard science” for developing public health guidance, including around the nation's vaccination schedule. Her testimony was given to the Senate's health committee just a day before a vaccine panel is set to consider major changes to the routine vaccinations recommended for the nation's children.

Monarez, who was fired after 29 days into her tenure over vaccine policy disagreements with Kennedy, told senators that deadly infectious diseases like polio could be poised to make a devastating comeback if the health secretary and his team continue their public campaign against routine shots.

“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.

Despite her concerns, some Republicans continued to cast doubts on Wednesday about Monarez's account of her exchanges with Kennedy, firmly throwing their support behind the health secretary. A spokesperson for Kennedy did not provide a response to Monarez's testimony. In a post on X thanking a Republican senator for support during the hearing, Kennedy said “we will earn back Americans’ trust and refocus the CDC on its core mission.”

Monarez said Kennedy told her she would need to quit the job if she refused to sign off on the new vaccine recommendations that are expected to be released later this week by the CDC's advisory vaccine panel, which Kennedy has stocked with some medical professionals who are 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, 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 the schedule?” Cassidy asked.

Monarez also claimed that Kennedy prohibited her from speaking to the CDC's career staff — many of them scientists and researchers — and instructed her not to speak directly with U.S. senators. Monarez reached out to Cassidy's office after Kennedy fired her, a move that Republican Sen. Ashley Moody faintly criticized on Wednesday.

“It is entirely appropriate for someone with oversight concerns to contact my office, or me, or frankly any of us,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy, who is up for reelection next year, carefully praised President Donald 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 staff, who she said took an unprecedented role in preparing materials for meetings of the CDC's advisory vaccine panel.

Houry said that she asked a political adviser about providing data around the hepatitis B vaccine for the CDC's advisory panel to look at. The panel is expected to consider on Thursday whether newborns should receive hepatitis B shots. The shot is given to newborns to prevent the spread of the deadly disease from the mother.

Kennedy's political adviser, however, dismissed the data as biased because it might support keeping the shots on the schedule, Houry alleged.

"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.

Democrats, all of whom opposed Monarez's nomination, questioned Kennedy's motives for firing his supposed handpicked director after she was unanimously approved by Republicans mere weeks ago.

“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 remove 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 from her office but has acknowledged he demanded firings. He has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy" in a meeting, a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney.

Several Senate Republicans continued to sow doubts about Monarez's reliability. Their critiques of Monarez were shared on social media accounts belonging to Kennedy and the official U.S. Health and Human Services agency.

At one point, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican and close ally of Kennedy, told the committee that Monarez's final meeting with the health secretary was recorded. Claiming that she inaccurately recounted the details of her conversation with Kennedy, Mullin reminded Monarez of the “recorded meeting” and pressed her again on whether Monarez told Kennedy she was “untrustworthy."

Mullin later said outside of the hearing that he was “mistaken” about the existence of the recording.

“If HHS has a recording, I ask them to release the recording," Cassidy said.

Several Republicans questioned Monarez's loyalty to Kennedy, with GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama noting that Trump was elected to make changes.

“America needs better than this,” Tuberville said.

The CDC’s advisory vaccine panel begins its two-day session in Atlanta on Thursday to discuss shots against COVID-19 and hepatitis B as well as the combination MMR/chickenpox vaccine. 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.

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Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, contributed to this report.