HHS Sec. Kennedy IS turning into a BIG problem for Donald Trump that the President does NOT need…..
Monarez told members of the Senate health committee that she was fired for “holding the line on scientific integrity” and pushing back on demands from Kennedy to preapprove vaccine recommendations from his advisers who have criticized vaccines. Testifying at a hearing earlier this month, Kennedy told senators that Monarez was lying, while conceding that he asked her to fire senior staff.
Monarez, in her first public appearance since her firing, said Kennedy told her that “every day” he was speaking to Trump about changing the childhood vaccine schedule and pressed her to back him.
Debra Houry, one of three top CDC officials who resigned in protest of Monarez’s firing, is also testifying. She said she had to push back against Kennedy for trying to disseminate misleading medical claims through the CDC….
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Susan Monarez, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ousted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told a Senate committee on Wednesday that the secretary trafficked in falsehoods about the agency and fired her because she refused to put his ideology on vaccines above science.
Dr. Monarez told the Senate health committee that she was fired for “holding the line on scientific integrity” after refusing Mr. Kennedy’s demands to fire C.D.C. vaccine officials and to preemptively agree to approve vaccine recommendations without seeing the science behind them. Another witness, Dr. Deb Houry, who resigned as the C.D.C.’s chief medical officer over Dr. Monarez’s dismissal, told the panel she believed Mr. Kennedy should resign, citing the deaths of children during a measles outbreak in Texas. Children, she said, “have died under his watch.”
Some Republicans on the committee — including its chairman, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and vaccine proponent — appeared dismayed with the allegations raised by Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry. Mr. Cassidy, who has challenged Mr. Kennedy on vaccine policy, sought to frame the hearing as a “direct response” to President Trump’s desire for “radical transparency.”
Some Republicans on the committee used the hearing to repeat criticisms of the C.D.C.’s pandemic-era guidance on vaccines and other measures, arguing that has led to vaccine hesitancy and distrust of the agency. A few sought to undermine Dr. Monarez’s testimony by accusing her of coordinating with “anti-Trump lawyers.”
Democrats were more blunt in their assessment of the central issue: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Mr. Kennedy “listens to conspiracy theorists.”
Here’s what else to know:
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Vaccines: Dr. Monarez testified at length about the C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 of the committee’s members and replaced them, including with some who are also outspoke critics of vaccines. She told lawmakers that she feared that Mr. Kennedy’s ideology would cause preventable diseases to surge, harming America’s children. The U.S. has already experienced a measles resurgencethis year, and whooping cough cases are higher than before the Covid pandemic.
Dr. Monarez said Mr. Kennedy had demanded that she accept without question the recommendation of the newly reconstituted committee. She testified that she told Mr. Kennedy that “if he believed he could not trust me, he could fire me.”
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Testimony: Dr. Monarez described a private meeting with Mr. Kennedy during which a “very, very upset and very animated” health secretary hurled insults at the C.D.C. She said Mr. Kennedy called the C.D.C. “the most corrupt federal agency in the world” and told her that its employees were “killing children.” Dr. Monarez also told senators that Mr. Kennedy claimed employees were “bought by the Pharma industry.”
She also told the lawmakers that Mr. Kennedy had urged her to meet with Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has filed numerous lawsuits undercutting vaccines. Mr. Siri rose to prominence late last year as a close adviser to Mr. Kennedy who had previously petitioned the F.D.A. to remove its approval of the standalone polio vaccine.
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Kennedy’s moves: In addition to replacing the panel of expertswho make vaccine recommendations and dismissing Dr. Monarez, Mr. Kennedy has taken other actions that alarmed public health experts since his confirmation in February. Mr. Kennedy has delivered a lukewarm endorsement of the measles vaccine; taken steps that will restrict access to Covid-19 vaccines and canceled $500 million of grants and contracts involving mRNA technology, which is used in the predominant Covid vaccines.
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Kennedy’s response: A spokesman for Mr. Kennedy, Andrew Nixon, said that Dr. Monarez had been fired because she “acted maliciously to undermine the president’s agenda” and that the health secretary “is focused on restoring public trust in the C.D.C. by ensuring transparency, accountability and diverse scientific input.”…
Note….
Monarez keeps Trump DIRECTLY in the equation….
The same Trump who questioned Florida’s exempting children vaccine mandates that has been put on hold?
image…Former Centers for Disease Control Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, left, and former CDC Director Susan Monarez…Getty