Fired CDC Director Susan Monarez to testify before Congress
Susan Monarez, the recently fired director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is set to testify before Congress next week. Monarez was removed from her post after opposing vaccine policy changes promoted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which she said contradicted scientific evidence.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, will hold the hearing on September 17. The session will also feature Deb Houry, former CDC chief medical officer, who resigned amid the policy conflicts, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Monarez’s firing in late August came less than a month after she took office, during a period when four senior CDC officials, including Houry, stepped down amid growing tensions over vaccine directives. The Trump administration has made sweeping changes, including withdrawing federal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children, and replacing the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel with hand-picked advisers.
The shake-up has drawn criticism from medical associations, health groups, and former Department of Health and Human Services officials, who argue the administration is undermining decades of medical science. Despite this, Trump has defended Kennedy, calling him “a very good person” with “some little different ideas.” Kennedy says his goal is to “restore” the CDC’s focus on infectious disease and “rebuild trust through transparency and competence.”
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