Susan Monarez, who was recently removed from her role as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday said she lost her job after defying a “troubling” order from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while decrying “a deliberate effort to weaken America’s public-health system and vaccine protections.”
“The Senate confirmed me to ensure that unbiased evidence serves our nation’s health, and for doing that, I lost my job,” she wrote in a scathing op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. “America’s children could lose far more.”
Monarez said Kennedy asked her in a meeting on Aug. 25 to swiftly endorse the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel made up of vaccine skeptics after the health secretary replaced its 17 former members with eight hand-picked advisers earlier this year. One of them has since left the group, but Kennedy has reportedly picked an additional seven new members to join the committee.
During a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Kennedy denied issuing that directive to Monarez, accusing the former CDC leader of lying.
“I did not say that to her,” Kennedy said.
