Former CDC director Susan Monarez said on Thursday that the Trump administration pressured her to resign or face termination after she refused to preapprove recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In an opinion column written for The Wall Street Journal, Monarez outlined the events that led to her ouster in August, weeks after taking CDC leadership following a Senate confirmation hearing in June.
“I was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric,” she said, referring to a meeting she had with RFK Jr. days before her removal.
The former presidential candidate who backed President Donald Trump halfway through his reelection bid handpicked new members to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in June after firing all its 17 former members.
“It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected,” Monarez wrote in the Op-Ed about the next ACIP meeting scheduled for Sept. 18-19.
Her comments come as RFK Jr. is set to testify before the Senate Finance Committee at 10 am ET on Thursday, where he is expected to face questions about recent changes at the CDC and U.S. immunization policy.
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