Former CDC Director Susan Monarez testified at a combative Senate hearing in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday about the ways that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dismantling scientific expertise at CDC, confirming the worst fears of every American who still cares about science and public health.
Monarez, who was fired by President Donald Trump less than a month after being confirmed, told senators that Kennedy told her in August that he was going to change the childhood vaccine schedule in September and “I needed to be on board with it.” She was then pushed out of the agency before being formally let go by Trump for refusing to go along with the changes and firing others who disagreed.
“I could have stayed silent, agreed to the demands, and no one would have known. What the public would have seen were scientists dismissed without cause and vaccine protections quietly eroded,” Monarez said. “I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced: my integrity.”
Secrets at CDC
Monarez testified that she was instructed by Secretary Kennedy not to speak with senators, a bizarre request for a Senate-confirmed political appointment. The CDC Director was not a position that required Senate approval until 2023. Monarez testified that after she talked with members of Congress about some of her concerns, Kennedy instructed her to never do that again.
Monarez was asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, about what happened when she pushed back on his demands to fire CDC officials who wouldn’t go along with his anti-vaccine agenda.
Monarez also testified that Kennedy had said “particularly hurtful and disparaging” comments about the CDC during their conversations. She said Kennedy called the CDC “the most corrupt federal agency in the world” and even said that “CDC employees were horrible people.”
“He said that CDC employees were killing children and they don’t care,” Monarez said of Kennedy. “He said that CDC employees were bought by the pharmaceutical industry. He said CDC forced people to wear masks, social distance like a dictatorship.”
Monarez went on to say that the comment that hurt her the most was “a particularly vivid phrase” claiming that during the covid-19 outbreak, “CDC told hospitals to turn away sick covid patients until they had blue lips before allowing them to get treatment.”
Kennedy’s quackery
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