In Senate hearing, CDC director fired by RFK Jr. tells Murray she is ‘very nervous’ about new vaccine panel

WASHINGTON – The former director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Sen. Patty Murray during a hearing of the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday that they are both concerned about recent actions by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that could make it harder for Americans to get vaccines.

In response to questions from Murray, Susan Monarez, who was fired by Kennedy less than a month after the Senate confirmed her as CDC director, told the Washington Democrat she is “very nervous” about trusting federal vaccine recommendations after the health secretary disbanded an immunization advisory panel and replaced it with a hand-picked group that includes prominent critics of vaccination.

In her opening statement, Monarez said Kennedy ousted her when she refused to preemptively endorse the vaccine panel’s recommendations.

“I find that troubling – and ironic” Murray said of Monarez’s abrupt firing, pointing out that Kennedy had called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “little more than a rubber stamp” when he dissolved the 17-member committee in June.

“That’s exactly what he wanted you to be,” Murray said to Monarez, “for his new board of unqualified vaccine skeptics.”

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, Kennedy defended his decision to fire Monarez, claiming that the CDC director had told him she was not a “trustworthy person.” In that hearing, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., called the health secretary a “charlatan” for bringing his long-running criticism of inoculation to the nation’s top health agency despite promising senators during his confirmation hearings that he wouldn’t change vaccine policy.

Monarez pushed back on Kennedy’s narrative on Wednesday, saying she had rejected the secretary’s demands that she fire senior CDC officials and preapprove the vaccine panel’s recommendations. Those recommendations can affect the cost and availability of vaccines across the country.

“He just wanted blanket approval,” Monarez said. “Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology.”

Dr. Debra Houry, who resigned as chief medical officer along with other top CDC officials in protest of Monarez’s firing in August, told Murray she also has “significant concerns” about the lack of transparency from the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite serving as one of the nation’s top health officials, Houry said she learned about new federal guidance – which only recommends COVID-19 vaccines for people over 65 and those with certain health conditions – only when Kennedy announced the move on social media platform X.

“After the tweet came out, we asked for a written memo from HHS, because I couldn’t provide guidance off of a tweet. The written memo didn’t say the same as the video,” Houry said. “And then we did ask for the data to back it up, and we have not received the data to date.”

Murray reacted by saying, “It’s unthinkable to me that the chief medical officer at CDC was left in the dark about such a consequential public-health decision that affected real people.”

On Tuesday, Murray asked the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Inspector General, the agency’s internal watchdog, to investigate Kennedy’s firing of Monarez and his efforts to restrict Americans’ access to vaccines.

On Wednesday, a newly formed coalition of state governments in Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii issued its own vaccine guidance for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The West Coast Health Alliance recommends that anyone aged 6 months and older get the flu shot this fall and recommends the RSV vaccine for infants under 8 months old, adults over 75 and some other people depending on individual risk factors. In contrast to the new CDC guidance under Kennedy, the four Democrat-led states advise that COVID-19 vaccines should be available to anyone who wants one.