Vaccines Are at Risk, Fired CDC Director Warns Senators
September 17, 2025
4 Min read
They Vaccine Guidance is in chaos, the director of the licensed CDC said to senators
Former CDC chief Susan Monarez said that the secretary of health and social services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had demanded his rubber establishment recommendations of his panel of vaccines redone
Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images
On Wednesday, during a hearing in the American Senate, Susan Monarez, recently dismissed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that her former boss, secretary of health and social services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had worked to undermine the vaccines and the integrity of his agency, which threatened the security of the American public.
During the hearing, Monarez spoke of his dismissal in August, after a month of work as head of the CDC. “I refused to commit to approving the recommendations of vaccines without proof [or] Heads of the career of fire without reason, “she told senators.” I would not commit myself to it, and I think that is the real reason why I was dismissed. “”
Monarez said Kennedy told him that he intended to change the infant vaccine calendar in September, and said he had the support of President Donald Trump to apply radical changes in health policy. He asked him to prepare, without seeing any evidence, vaccination recommendations of a panel of advice against the remained CDC that Kennedy had filled with anti -vacinated members. He also demanded to dismiss certain key scientists from the CDC.
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The Senate hearing was called upon to follow Kennedy’s previous testimony on September 4, in which he answered questions from the legislators of the two parties hard on the evidence of the confusion of changes to the policy of the American vaccine. Public health groups, including the American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, called Kennedy to resign.
“The troubles at the top of the public health agency of nations are not good for the health of the American people,” said Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana at the hearing on Wednesday. Cassidy, a doctor, is president of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which held the hearing.
Other senior CDC officials resigned following the dismissal of Monarez, including the assistant director of the agency, Debra Houry, who also testified during the hearing on Wednesday. “Secretary Kennedy has censored the science of the CDC, politicized his processes and stripped the leaders of independence,” she said during the hearing. She noted the recent triggering of measles and deaths against flu in non-vaccinated or subvacinated children as indicating the risks to come. The leaders of Monarez and the CDC, she said, “were reduced to rubber pads, supporting policies that are not based on science and putting American life in danger”.
In response, a declaration from the Ministry of Health and Social Services which was sent to American scientist By the agency’s press secretary, Emily Hilliard, said that Monarez’s remarks had “factual inaccuracies” and said that “she had acted with the president’s agenda and was dismissed accordingly”. Monarez had neglected to implement Trump’s decrees and made political and personnel decisions without the political approval of Kennedy or the White House, according to the press release.
“We have never seen anything like that before in public health. It is completely unacceptable, ”explains Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American public Health Association. “The administration has completely lost its credibility,” he says. “People will die. People will suffer. “
“We now have an HHS secretary who does not believe in established science and who listens to conspiracy theorists,” said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to open comments at the hearing.
In August, Kennedy announced in a position on X that the Food and Drug Administration had approved the updated 2025-2026 covid vaccines with new restrictions. Updated vaccines are only approved for adults aged 65 or over and those who have a preexisting condition that would increase the risk of severe infection. The confusion and the resulting disagreement have led certain states and groups of doctors to publish their own vaccination recommendations wet to ensure greater access.
Monarez’s testimony occurred one day before the vaccination consulting committee redone on the CDC met to vote on the recommendations of American vaccines. The members of the panel will vote on the recommendations for measles for measles, original rubella and chickenpox and for vaccines with hepatitis B Thursday and on the recommendations for vaccines codid on Friday.
Kennedy had dismissed the 17 panel experts in June. He has since appointed 13 handpicked members, and anti -vacinated activists are among them. Five of these members, none of whom are immunologists or vaccine experts, were officially appointed until Monday. Insurers, in general, do not have to pay for vaccines that the panel does not recommend, making votes of members integrated into public health. America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the National Trade Association representing the Health Insurance sector, announced Tuesday that private health insurance plans will fully cover all the vaccinations that the ACIP had recommended from September 1 to the end of 2026. This decision could by preventive bypass the votes that will take place during the meeting of this week.
A lawyer for the environment, Kennedy led the defense of health for non -profit anti -vacinated children until 2023, when he began a campaign for the American president. He finished his campaign with approval for Trump, who, after winning the elections, appointed Kennedy to become HHS chief. Senator Cassidy was the decisive vote that the appointment of Kennedy advanced for the secretary of the HHS. During the confirmation hearing, Cassidy said he felt assured that Kennedy would not upset the vaccine system. During the September 4 hearing, Kennedy told Cassidy: “You are wrong”, when the senator said that he thought that the HHS chief was actually withdrawing the vaccines to people.
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