Fired CDC chief will testify Kennedy pressed her to endorse vaccine recommendations without evidence
Washington – The director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez will tell the senators that the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
According to a copy of the prepared remarks, obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press, Monarez will tell the senators that Kennedy gave him an ultimatum: the new recommendations for vaccine against a controversial consulting committee “preappropheated” have completed medical experts who doubt the security of vaccines or vaccine safety. This panel should vote on new vaccine recommendations later this week.
Monarez, initially sorted on the component by Kennedy and appointed by President Donald Trump, was dismissed for a few weeks in work on disagreements on vaccination policies. She should appear before the Senate’s powerful health committee to discuss her dismissal.
“Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology or compromise my integrity,” said Monarez in his opening testimony to the senators. “Vaccine policy must be guided by credible data, not predetermined results.”
She said that she had been “dismissed for keeping the line on scientific integrity”.
Monarrez also notes that Kennedy ordered him to dismiss a number of high -ranking CDC officials without reason.
The Senate hearing will focus on the impact of the bustle of the country’s main public health agency, which is responsible for making vaccine recommendations to the public, will have the health of children. It will also undoubtedly serve an opportunity for Monarez and former head doctor Debra Houry, who will also testify before the Committee, to respond to a certain number of controversial claims in Kennedy concerning their last days at the agency.
Kennedy denied monarez accusations that he had ordered “rubber” vaccine recommendations.
He described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “unworthy of confidence”, an assertion that Monarez rejected through his lawyer. However, he recognized during a hearing in the Senate Testy earlier this month that he ordered Monarez to dismiss several senior CDC officials.
The Senate hearing takes place just a day before the vaccine panel begins its two-day session in Atlanta to discuss the blows against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox. We do not know how the panel could vote on the recommendations, although members have raised doubts as to whether hepatitis B strokes administered to newborns are necessary and have suggested that the COVVI-19 recommendations should be more limited.
The director of the CDC must approve these recommendations before becoming official. The deputy secretary of health and social services, Jim O’Neill, now as an acting director of the CDC, will be responsible for this.
Monarez and Houry are expected to face tense questions from Republicans on the recommendations of the CDC vaccine and COVVI-19 policies. Democrats, on the other hand, are likely to seek more information on Kennedy’s approach to vaccines.
The hearing of the health committee will be supervised by the republican senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who voted key for Kennedy’s confirmation. He expressed his concern about “serious allegations” at the CDC and called for surveillance, without blaming Kennedy.
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The editors of the Associated Press Mike Stobbe in New York and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed.
