Susan Monarez appeared before the Senate health committee in June when they considered whether to confirm her to lead the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Photo / Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Susan Monarez is set to testify to the United States Congress next week about her experiences before she was fired as director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, including her clash with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy jnr over vaccines.
The Senate’s health committee announced that it will hold a hearing with Monarez on September 17, which would give her a high-profile platform to publicly address the tumult that prompted other top CDC officials to resign and accusations from Kennedy that she lied.
Kennedy has been facing questions from Senate Republicans over his decision to push out Monarez just four weeks after they voted to confirm her, one of the more notable intra-party disputes of the Trump Administration.
The committee is chaired by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), a vocal proponent of vaccines who voted to confirm Kennedy after publicly wrestling with the decision and who has vowed to conduct “oversight” on the CDC’s leadership turmoil.
Debra Houry, who served as the CDC’s chief medical officer and was among the three officials who resigned in protest of Monarez’s ouster, is also set to testify.
The committee also said that Trump Administration officials will be invited to respond by testifying at a future hearing.
“To protect children’s health, Americans need to know what has happened and is happening at the CDC. They need to be reassured that their child’s health is given priority,” Cassidy said in a statement. “Radical transparency is the only way to do that.”
Monarez - who was confirmed as CDC director on July 29 - was forced out on August 27, with Kennedy and Monarez publicly disputing the causes of her departure.
In testimony to the Senate Finance Committee last week, Kennedy said he had quickly soured on an official he recently called “unimpeachable”.
“I told her she had to resign because I asked her, are you a trustworthy person? And she said, ‘no,’” Kennedy said.
Monarez’s lawyers dismissed Kennedy’s claims as “false, and at times, patently ridiculous” and said she was willing to testify under oath.
They previously said she was targeted because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts” and accused Kennedy of “weaponising public health for political gain” and “putting millions of American lives at risk” by purging health officials from government.
A spokesperson for Monarez’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her plans to testify.
Monarez’s testimony would be her first public appearance since her firing.
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal published the day of Kennedy’s Senate hearing, she wrote that he pressured her to “preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric”.
The hearing is scheduled a day before a two-day meeting of that vaccine committee, which is set to consider rescinding or revising recommendations for Hepatitis B, RSV and coronavirus immunisation.
Republicans have demanded Kennedy explain why he turned on a deputy he encouraged them to confirm and whether his moves on vaccines violated his pledge to uphold vaccine access.
“As somebody who advised executives on hiring strategies, number one, I would suggest in the interview, you ask them if they’re truthful rather than four weeks after we took the time of the US Senate to confirm the person,” Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), a former management consultant, told Kennedy last week.
Democrats have also clamoured for more oversight of Kennedy’s moves. Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), who leads Democrats on the health committee, told the Washington Post today that he and Cassidy have been in “constant contact as to how we best go forward”.
Cassidy also has contacted public health experts for a potential separate hearing focused on the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social last week calling for more evidence of the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccines developed by his first administration.
Cassidy has repeatedly called for Trump to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for Operation Warp Speed, the 2020 initiative during the first Trump presidency to rapidly develop coronavirus vaccines.
Kennedy demanded Monarez fire CDC staff, both he and her lawyers said.
Monarez also faced resistance from Kennedy’s deputies over her plans to select her own outside advisers, with Trump Administration officials questioning if Monarez’s choices would be on “team Maha”, according to two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Eric Topol, a cardiologist who has written about age-related disease and the benefits of coronavirus vaccination, said that he had preliminary conversations with Monarez about serving as one of those advisers.
He praised Monarez for rebuffing Kennedy’s vaccine policies, citing her statements and news reports.
“She’s a hero for standing up to RFK jnr and standing up for science,” Topol said in an interview.
Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), a member of the Senate health committee and its former chairwoman, said that Kennedy should also be called to testify about his actions as health secretary.
“First and foremost, I believe he should be fired,” Murray said. “But if he needs to come before the committee and get queried first, fine.”
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