Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was ousted last month after mere weeks in the role, is set to testify before the Senate next week about what was behind her dramatic downfall, as well as the ongoing chaos at the public health agency under health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a hearing last Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee, a combative Kennedy repeatedly called Monarez a liar and made the incredible claim that he fired her after he asked her directly if she was a trustworthy person and she responded "no." While senators clearly struggled to believe that explanation, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wryly noted that Kennedy should have asked her the question before having the Senate confirm her for the role.
In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal the same day as Kennedy's testimony, Monarez gave a different account of her firing—one corroborated by independent reporting—saying that she was ousted after she refused Kennedy's directives to fire senior CDC staff and pre-approve vaccine recommendations from an advisory committee he had stacked with fellow anti-vaccine advocates.
In the hearing next week, Monarez will go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). Along with Monarez, the committee will hear from Debra Houry, the former chief medical officer for the CDC, who resigned—alongside two other high-ranking CDC leaders—upon Monarez's ouster. The hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, September 17, at 10 am ET.
“To protect children’s health, Americans need to know what has happened and is happening at the CDC," Cassidy said in an announcement of the hearing. "They need to be reassured that their child’s health is given priority. Radical transparency is the only way to do that."
Cassidy, a physician who strongly supports vaccines, cast a critical vote for Kennedy's confirmation as health secretary, despite reservations about his anti-vaccine views. At the time, Cassidy said he had gotten assurances from Kennedy that he would not take vaccines away from Americans or undermine the CDC's childhood vaccine schedule. However, Kennedy has already done both, and health experts fear that the long-time anti-vaccine activist will continue to dismantle the CDC's evidence-based vaccination recommendations.
In the Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, Cassidy relayed accounts of a cancer patient being unable to get a COVID-19 vaccine and doctors being confused by the current state of access to the shots. "Effectively we're denying people vaccines," Cassidy said. Kennedy retorted: "You're wrong."
“Serious allegations”
The HELP committee hearing is scheduled the day before Kennedy's anti-vaccine-stacked CDC advisory panel is scheduled to meet and discuss COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, as well as recommendations for some childhood vaccines. In June, Kennedy fired all 17 highly qualified, respected, and thoroughly vetted experts on the panel—the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The committee now contains seven members hand-selected by Kennedy, including Robert Malone, who has falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines cause a form of AIDS, and Retsef Levi, who said in a 2023 video that COVID-19 vaccines should be removed from the market. As recently as last month, Levi had the video pinned to his X account.
Kennedy is reportedly vetting seven additional members for ACIP, who may be added before the next meeting. They include additional anti-vaccine voices and fringe members of the medical community, such as Kirk Milhoan, who promoted the de-worming drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19, despite several clinical trials finding it is not effective. There is also Joseph Fraiman, who has repeatedly called for COVID-19 vaccines to be pulled from the market.
Also on the list is Catherine Stein, who, The Washington Post noted, has advocated against vaccine mandates and wrote a 2021 article arguing that people should not be afraid of contracting COVID-19 because: "Our Lord has given us a mission to share the gospel. If we live in fear of death, that weakens our testimony. Remember, the Lord Jesus did not fear lepers, and leprosy was (and continues to be) a highly contagious infectious disease."
Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is, in fact, not a highly contagious disease. It does not spread easily from person to person, is not spread through casual contact, and about 95 percent of people are immune to it naturally. COVID-19, meanwhile, is estimated to have caused more than 7 million deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic.
Regardless of whether these candidates are added to the roster, Cassidy has called for the ACIP meeting scheduled for September 18 and 19 to be postponed.
"Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting," Cassidy said. "These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership."
After Monarez and Houry testify before the HELP committee, Cassidy said that Senators are planning to invite current health officials to respond in a subsequent hearing.
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