Fired CDC Director Says RFK Jr. Pressured Her to Blindly Approve Vaccine Changes

Debra Houry, former head doctor and assistant director of the program and science at the CDC, who was one of the many agency officials to resign following Monarez’s dismissal, also testified during the hearing on Wednesday.

“I have resigned because CDC leaders were reduced to rubber pads, supporting policies that are not based on science and putting the American lives in danger. Secretary Kennedy censored the science of the CDC, politicized his processes and stripped the leaders of independence. I could not and in good conscience, to stay under these conditions,” said Homey.

She also accused Kennedy of ending the flu campaigns despite the gravity of the flu 2024-2025 flu season, as well as distributing disinformation and promoting unproven treatments for measles.

Houry said she had learned that Kennedy had changed the advice of the COVV-19 vaccine from the CDC from a publication on social networks on X. “CDC scientists have still not seen scientific data or justification for this change. It is not the standard science of gold, ”said Houry, referring to a declaration in May that HHS will no longer recommend the vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women

Monarez said secretary Kennedy had not communicated his plans to change the vaccination calendar on childhood until their meeting on August 25. Monarez said she had told Kennedy that she would be open to modifying the calendar of infant vaccines if the evidence or science supported these changes. Kennedy replied that there was no existing science or evidence and developed that the CDC had never collected this data, according to Monarez.

Monarez said that she could not agree to approve the recommendations of the APIP before knowing what they were. “I built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be able to approve something that would reduce access to vital vaccines to children and others who need it,” she said.

This Thursday, the AIPI should discuss the hepatitis B vaccine, which was recommended for newborns within 24 hours of birth since 1991. But the committee should vote on the abolition of this recommendation and the delay in the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine until the age of 4.

In the United States, each year, around 25,000 infants were born from women diagnosed with hepatitis B virus, or HBV, a serious liver infection that can cause cirrhosis and cancer. Before the introduction of the vaccine, nearly 20,000 babies and children were infected with HBV each year in the United States. Now less than 20 get their mother’s disease.

“Now that we have checked it, let us get out of the bottle? If the recommendation disappears and a parent wants the vaccine, the insurance will not cover it for free. She will be forced to pay for her pocket,” said Senator Cassidy at the end of the hearing. Vaccine coverage is generally linked to ACIP recommendations.

Cassidy initially hesitated to the appointment of Kennedy as secretary of the HHS, taking into account his previous statements on the vaccines, but he supported it, he said, Kennedy promised to maintain the availability of vaccines and not to complicate public confidence in their.

The AIPI should discuss COVVI-19 vaccines on Friday.