Fired CDC chief Susan Monarez warns senators that RFK Jr. is endangering
public health
[September 18, 2025]
By AMANDA SEITZ and MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. public health system is headed to a “very
dangerous place” with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his
team of anti-vaccine advisers in charge, fired Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention chief Susan Monarez warned senators on Wednesday.
Describing extraordinary turmoil inside the nation's health agencies,
Monarez and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Chief Debra Houry said
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, and his political advisers
repeatedly rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Monarez's revelations to senators raised serious questions, even among
some Republicans, about Kennedy's self-professed commitment to employ
“gold-standard science” for developing public health guidance, including
around the nation's vaccination schedule. Her testimony was given to the
Senate's health committee just a day before a vaccine panel is set to
consider major changes to the routine vaccinations recommended for the
nation's children.
Monarez, who was fired after 29 days into her tenure over vaccine policy
disagreements with Kennedy, told senators that deadly infectious
diseases like polio could be poised to make a devastating comeback if
the health secretary and his team continue their public campaign against
routine shots.
“I believe preventable diseases will return, and I believe we will have
our children harmed by things they don’t need to be harmed by,” Monarez
said before the Senate health committee.
Despite her concerns, some Republicans continued to cast doubts on
Wednesday about Monarez's account of her exchanges with Kennedy, firmly
throwing their support behind the health secretary. A spokesperson for
Kennedy did not provide a response to Monarez's testimony. In a post on
X thanking a Republican senator for support during the hearing, Kennedy
said “we will earn back Americans’ trust and refocus the CDC on its core
mission.”
Data and scientists removed from the conversation about vaccines,
Monarez said
Monarez said Kennedy told her she would need to quit the job if she
refused to sign off on the new vaccine recommendations that are expected
to be released later this week by the CDC's advisory vaccine panel,
which Kennedy has stocked with some medical professionals who are
vaccine skeptics. She said that when she asked for data or science to
back up Kennedy’s request to change the childhood vaccination schedule,
he offered none.
She added that Kennedy told her “he spoke to the president every day
about changing the childhood vaccination schedule.”
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the powerful health
committee, listened intently as Monarez and Houry described
conversations with Kennedy and his advisers.
“To be clear, he said there was not science or data, but he still
expected you to change the schedule?” Cassidy asked.
Monarez also claimed that Kennedy prohibited her from speaking to the
CDC's career staff — many of them scientists and researchers — and
instructed her not to speak directly with U.S. senators. Monarez reached
out to Cassidy's office after Kennedy fired her, a move that Republican
Sen. Ashley Moody faintly criticized on Wednesday.
“It is entirely appropriate for someone with oversight concerns to
contact my office, or me, or frankly any of us,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy, who is up for reelection next year, carefully praised President
Donald Trump for his commitment to promoting health policies but made it
clear he was concerned about the circumstances surrounding Monarez's
removal.
Houry, meanwhile, described similar exchanges with Kennedy's political
staff, who she said took an unprecedented role in preparing materials
for meetings of the CDC's advisory vaccine panel.
Houry said that she asked a political adviser about providing data
around the hepatitis B vaccine for the CDC's advisory panel to look at.
The panel is expected to consider on Thursday whether newborns should
receive hepatitis B shots. The shot is given to newborns to prevent the
spread of the deadly disease from the mother.
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Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan
Monarez testifies before the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
 Kennedy's political adviser,
however, dismissed the data as biased because it might support
keeping the shots on the schedule, Houry alleged.
"You’re suggesting that they wanted to move away from the birth
dose, but they were afraid that your data would say that they should
retain it?" Cassidy asked.
Loyal Republicans raise doubts about Monarez's account
Democrats, all of whom opposed Monarez's nomination, questioned
Kennedy's motives for firing his supposed handpicked director after
she was unanimously approved by Republicans mere weeks ago.
“Frankly, she stood up for protecting the well-being of the American
people, and for that reason she was fired,” said Sen. Bernie
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats.
Monarez said it was both her refusal to sign off on new vaccination
recommendations without scientific evidence and her unwillingness to
remove high-ranking career CDC officials without cause that led to
her ousting.
Kennedy has denied Monarez’s accusations that he ordered
“rubber-stamped” vaccine recommendations from her office but has
acknowledged he demanded firings. He has described Monarez as
admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy" in a meeting, a claim
Monarez has denied through her attorney.
Several Senate Republicans continued to sow doubts about Monarez's
reliability. Their critiques of Monarez were shared on social media
accounts belonging to Kennedy and the official U.S. Health and Human
Services agency.
At one point, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican and
close ally of Kennedy, told the committee that Monarez's final
meeting with the health secretary was recorded. Claiming that she
inaccurately recounted the details of her conversation with Kennedy,
Mullin reminded Monarez of the “recorded meeting” and pressed her
again on whether Monarez told Kennedy she was “untrustworthy."
Mullin later said outside of the hearing that he was “mistaken”
about the existence of the recording.
“If HHS has a recording, I ask them to release the recording,"
Cassidy said.
Several Republicans questioned Monarez's loyalty to Kennedy, with
GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama noting that Trump was elected
to make changes.
“America needs better than this,” Tuberville said.
Monarez said she is ‘nervous’ about upcoming vaccine panel
meeting
The CDC’s advisory vaccine panel begins its two-day session in
Atlanta on Thursday to discuss shots against COVID-19 and hepatitis
B as well as the combination MMR/chickenpox vaccine. It’s unclear
how the panel might vote on the recommendations, though members have
raised doubts about whether hepatitis B shots administered to
newborns are necessary and have suggested COVID-19 recommendations
should be more restricted.
The CDC director must endorse those recommendations before they
become official. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim
O’Neill, now serving as the CDC’s acting director, will be
responsible for that.
“I'm very nervous about it,” Monarez said of the meeting.
——
Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Washington and Meg Kinnard in
Chapin, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
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