Susan Monarez, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was ousted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid a dispute over vaccine policy, will tell her story during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that promises to be a referendum on Mr. Kennedy’s leadership.
Dr. Monarez will appear before the Senate health committee along with Dr. Deb Houry, the C.D.C.’s former chief medical officer, one of three top agency officials who quit after concluding they could no longer work for Mr. Kennedy.
Wednesday’s hearing will expose a rocky time at the nation’s public health agency, which long has been a target of Mr. Kennedy. At a recent Senate hearing, he defended his shake-up of the agency, saying: “We are the sickest country in the world. That’s why we have to fire people at C.D.C. They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy. “
In prepared testimony, Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry accused Mr. Kennedy of disregarding science and endangering Americans’ health.
The hearing also comes on the eve of a two-day meeting of the C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or A.C.I.P — an expert panel at the heart of Dr. Monarez’s conflict with Mr. Kennedy. Earlier this year, Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 of the committee’s members and replaced them with some who share his skepticism of vaccines.
In her prepared testimony, Dr. Monarez said she lost her job for “holding the line on scientific integrity” after refusing Mr. Kennedy’s demands to fire top C.D.C. vaccine officials and accept without question the recommendation of the newly reconstituted immunization advisory committee.
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The post Fired C.D.C. Director to Testify About Her Clash With Kennedy appeared first on New York Times.
