WASHINGTON D.C. — Former CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez is set to appear before the Senate Health Committee Wednesday morning, where she will testify about her firing last month by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The hearing, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., is expected to focus on the clash between Monarez and Kennedy. In her prepared remarks, Monarez says she was pushed out because she refused to pre-approve recommendations from the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel regardless of scientific evidence or to fire senior vaccine policy officials. She says Kennedy instructed her to take those steps, a charge he denied before the same Senate panel earlier this month.
According to CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion, Monarez plans to tell lawmakers, “Regarding trustworthiness, I cannot define that word for Secretary Kennedy. I told the secretary that if he believed he could not trust me, he could fire me.”
An HHS spokesperson is disputing her account, calling her testimony inaccurate and alleging that Monarez acted “maliciously to undermine the president’s agenda.”
Monarez’s testimony comes on the eve of a two-day meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which convenes Thursday and Friday in Atlanta. The panel is expected to consider a range of immunizations, including COVID-19 vaccines, hepatitis B, measles-mumps-rubella, chickenpox, and RSV.
Joining Monarez at Wednesday’s hearing will be Dr. Deb Houry, the former CDC chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science. Houry was among four senior CDC officials who resigned following Monarez’s dismissal.
WSB’s Sabrina Cupit contributed to this story
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