Login
Former CDC chief says she was fired for resisting RFK Jr. orders on vaccines
Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez testifies before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Sept.17, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez testified before a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday that she was fired after just 29 days because she refused to pre-approve vaccine recommendations or fire career officials for no reason.
Monarez, who was nominated by President Donald Trump earlier this year and confirmed by the Senate in July on a party-line vote, became a central figure in the country’s debate over public health last month after she refused to resign.
Monarez testified that during a meeting in late August, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told her she needed to commit to approving upcoming recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without reviewing any data or research.
“He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign,” Monarez said. “I responded that I could not pre-approve recommendations without reviewing the evidence and I had no basis to fire scientific experts.”
Monarez testified before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee during the nearly three-hour hearing that she told Kennedy if he didn’t trust her, then he could fire her.
During that same late August meeting, Monarez said Kennedy told her the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing in September and that she needed to be on board with that.
“We got into an exchange where I had suggested that I would be open to changing childhood vaccine schedules if the evidence or science was supportive,” Monarez testified. “And he responded that there was no science or evidence associated with the childhood vaccine schedule.”
ACIP is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kennedy testified before a separate Senate committee earlier this month that he did demand that Monarez fire career CDC scientists but said he didn’t tell her to accept the recommendations of the vaccine advisory panel without further review.
“What I asked her about is she had made a statement that she was going to not sign on and I wanted clarification about that,” Kennedy said at the time. “I told her I didn’t want her to have a role if she’s not going to sign onto it.”
Vaccine safety at issue
Monarez said that undermining vaccine safety will lead to an increase in preventable diseases, some of which have long-term or even lifelong consequences for children’s health.
“I believe that we will have our children harmed for things that we know they do not need to be harmed by — polio, measles, diphtheria, chickenpox,” she said.
Former CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry told the committee there are significant ramifications if the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who were appointed by Kennedy after he fired all of the former members, don’t use rigorous science and data to make their recommendations.
“It’s going to be heartbreaking,” Houry said. “I think what concerns me is these aren’t harmless diseases. We just saw the case in California of a young child that died of encephalitis years after measles. These diseases have long-term consequences and in the U.S. we have gone so far in reversing this. We don’t want our children to die.”
Houry was one of several CDC officials who resigned after learning about Monarez’s firing, which happened just weeks after a gunman opened fire at the CDC’s headquarters, killing a police officer.
Both Monarez and Houry testified, in response to a question from Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, that confusion about vaccines and CDC recommendations had real consequences.
“I myself was subject to threats,” Monarez said. “And I am very concerned that the further promulgation of misleading information will undermine not just the safety and health of our children, but it will also exacerbate some of these tensions — the willingness to commit harm if someone is affronted by a belief that the people like us that are trying to help them are actually not trying to help them.”
Houry told the committee the gunman fired about 500 rounds, with approximately 180 of those hitting the building.
“Each bullet was meant for a person, and each of my staff were very traumatized afterwards,” Houry said. “I had staff that were covering their kids in the day care parking lot. There were people that were out at the ride-share as bullets were passing over their head. I have many that won’t speak about vaccines now and removed their names off of the papers. They don’t wish to present publicly anymore because they feel they were personally targeted because of misinformation.”
‘Did we do something wrong?’
HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said at the beginning of the hearing he intended to invite Kennedy and possibly other HHS officials to testify before his committee later in the year if they wanted to respond to what was said in the Wednesday hearing.
He also raised concerns that Monarez was fired after less than a month in the role, despite her being nominated by Trump, confirmed by the Senate and Kennedy saying while swearing her in that she had “unimpeachable scientific credentials.”
“We as senators need to ask ourselves, did we look past something? Did we do something wrong?” Cassidy said. “It may be that we did nothing wrong, in which case, Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry, the onus is upon you to prove that the criticisms leveled by the secretary are not true.”
Cassidy later added that “it may be impossible to learn who’s telling the truth.”
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member on the committee, said the Trump administration’s decision to fire Monarez after less than a month in the CDC director’s role was because “she refused to act as a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous agenda to substantially limit the use of safe and effective vaccines that would endanger the lives of the American people and people throughout the world.”
Sanders raised concerns that the loss of career officials at the CDC and other federal health agencies could hamper the country from addressing disease outbreaks in the months and years ahead.
Confusion over whether Monarez was recorded
There were a few awkward moments in the hearing, in addition to the serious discussion about the Trump administration’s approach to public health.
One came after Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody mentioned twice during her five minutes of questions that Monarez had spoken with Cassidy about her firing, implying that was somehow improper.
Cassidy gave a lengthy statement afterward, clarifying the record.
“As chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over the CDC that favorably reported Dr. Monarez as the CDC director, it is entirely appropriate for someone with oversight concerns to contact my office, or me, or frankly any of us,” Cassidy said. “Upon receiving outreach from Dr. Monarez, I contacted both the secretary and the White House to inquire about what was happening and to express concerns about what was alleged. As soon as the director was fired, the HELP Committee began reviewing the situation, as it is our responsibility, and any and all communication with the witnesses was conducted by HELP staff in coordination with attorneys.”
Another somewhat uncomfortable and slightly confusing moment came after Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin told Monarez that someone had recorded her meeting or meetings with Kennedy.
Mullin then repeatedly questioned her recollection of her conversations with Kennedy, implying that he had a different view because he had listened to the recording.
The exchange led Cassidy to give another statement to the committee. He appeared somewhat frustrated that someone gave just one senator on the panel the recording, that Mullin had not shared it with any other members of the committee and that HHS had chosen not to give it to the committee in response to a request for documents related to Monarez’s firing.
“If a recording does not exist, I ask Sen. Mullin to retract his line of questions,” Cassidy said. “I’ll also note that if he has it, I’m also curious why only one senator was given this and why we’re just hearing about it now.”
A few minutes later, Cassidy announced to the hearing room that Mullin told reporters elsewhere that he was mistaken about there being a recording of the meeting or meetings.
Monarez lawyer
Several GOP senators on the panel also questioned Monarez at length about when and why she chose to hire legal representation and why she ultimately went with Mark Zaid, who has made public statements against Trump and his policies.
Monarez testified that she wasn’t aware of Zaid’s political beliefs when she hired him and hasn’t spoken with him about politics.
“I was seeking some critical counsel to be able to help me make sure that I was understanding and aware of everything that had transpired and preparing for what might be next, including this committee hearing,” Monarez said. “Mark and I have never spoken about politics. I never asked him about his politics. He has never asked me about my politics.”
