Ousted CDC Director Says She Lost Job After Defying Health Secretary; Kennedy Denies Instruction

Susan Monarez, the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she was removed from her post after refusing a “troubling” directive from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a claim Kennedy flatly denied at a Senate hearing.

In an opinion piece published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, Monarez wrote that she lost her job “for doing” what she was confirmed by the Senate to do: ensure that unbiased evidence guides public-health decisions. She said that in a meeting on Aug. 25 Kennedy asked her to swiftly endorse the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel that she described as being composed of vaccine skeptics, and that she refused.

Monarez wrote that her defiance of the instruction led to her removal, and warned that “America’s children could lose far more,” accusing Kennedy of presiding over “a deliberate effort to weaken America’s public-health system and vaccine protections.” The Wall Street Journal op-ed framed her ouster as a response to her insistence on following the scientific evidence rather than political direction.

Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee later Thursday and disputed Monarez’s account. “I did not say that to her,” he said, and accused Monarez of lying about the exchange. The health secretary has defended his broader changes to federal vaccine advisory processes and the slate of advisers he has installed.

Monarez said earlier this year Kennedy replaced 17 members of the federal vaccine advisory panel with eight advisers he selected. According to her account, one of the appointees has since left the panel and Kennedy has reportedly appointed additional members to fill out the group. Kennedy’s staffing changes have drawn scrutiny from public-health officials and lawmakers concerned about the advisory panel’s direction and its role in CDC policymaking.

The dispute centers on the role of the CDC director in responding to the recommendations of external advisory panels and the degree of independence the agency retains in evaluating those recommendations. Monarez emphasized that she had been confirmed by the Senate to ensure unbiased evidence serves national health decisions, and characterized her removal as retaliation for resisting political pressure.

Kennedy, who became health secretary after campaigning on a platform that included skepticism about some mainstream vaccine policies, has said he is reshaping advisory bodies to include a broader range of viewpoints. During the hearing, he defended his actions and denied the specific claim that he instructed Monarez to endorse the panel’s recommendations.

The contention adds to an unfolding debate over the composition and influence of federal vaccine advisory groups and their relationship with the CDC. Changes to those groups, and the leadership dispute at the agency, have raised questions among lawmakers and public-health experts about how vaccine policy will be evaluated and implemented going forward.

Monarez’s op-ed and Kennedy’s denials set the stage for further scrutiny from lawmakers weighing oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC. Senators on the Finance Committee pressed Kennedy about the circumstances of Monarez’s removal and about the process for appointing and handling advisory-panel recommendations, but did not resolve the competing accounts of the Aug. 25 meeting.

Both Monarez’s allegation and Kennedy’s denial are now part of the public record, and the debate is likely to shape congressional oversight and public discussion about the independence of scientific advice in federal health policymaking.