Health Secretary RFK Jr. Denies Pressuring Ousted CDC Director, Labels Claims ‘False’
Health Secretary RFK Jr. Denies Pressuring Ousted CDC Director, Labels Claims ‘False’
Washington D.C. — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vehemently denied allegations that he pressured the recently ousted Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, to preapprove vaccine recommendations from a newly overhauled advisory panel. The accusations, which surfaced in an opinion piece by Monarez in the Wall Street Journal, have ignited a fierce debate over the independence of the CDC and the direction of national vaccine policy.
Monarez, who was fired less than a month after her Senate confirmation, claimed in her op-ed that Kennedy pressured her to resign or face termination during an August 25 meeting. She alleged that a troubling directive from that meeting was to preapprove recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel newly constituted with individuals publicly known for expressing anti-vaccine rhetoric.
Kennedy, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, directly addressed the accusations. When confronted by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Kennedy stated, “I did not say that to her. I never had a private meeting with her.” He went on to assert that Monarez was “lying today to the American people in the Wall Street Journal.” Later, under questioning from Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, Kennedy denied demanding Monarez accept panel recommendations without further review by career scientists.
In a swift rebuttal, lawyers for Monarez issued a statement Thursday afternoon, calling Kennedy’s claims “false, and at times, patently ridiculous.” Attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell affirmed that “Dr. Monarez stands by what she said in her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, would repeat it all under oath and continues to support the vision she outlined at her confirmation hearing that science will control her decisions.”
The controversy follows Kennedy’s June decision to remove every member of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), a government panel making vaccine recommendations, stating it had become a “rubber stamp.” He then appointed several new members, including vaccine skeptics, bypassing standard CDC selection practices. The newly formed ACIP is scheduled to meet later this month to consider new vaccine recommendations, with Monarez emphasizing the imperative for rigorous scientific review.
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