Susan Monarez, the previous director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, testified earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Sept. 17 in her first public remarks since she was fired. Some Republicans on the committee accused her of mendacity and stated she hadn’t been on board with the administration’s agenda.
As in earlier hearings regarding Robert F. Kennedy’s efficiency as secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies, the main focus was on Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), who forged the deciding vote as HELP Committee chair to substantiate Kennedy early this yr. Since that vote, Cassidy has repeatedly expressed skepticism about Kennedy’s management.
Cassidy famous that when Kennedy swore in Monarez on July 31, he extolled her “unimpeachable scientific credentials.” Lower than a month later, she was fired. “What happened?” Cassidy stated. “Turmoil at the top of the nation’s top public health agency is not good for the health of the American people.”
Monarez stated she got here into the job aligned with Kennedy’s objectives of enhancing America’s well being and was open to altering the insurance policies and buildings on the CDC. She wasn’t able to compromise her scientific judgment, nonetheless.
“I could have kept the office, the title, but I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced: my integrity,” she stated.
Monarez stated that at an Aug. 25 assembly, Kennedy demanded she fireplace senior scientists and conform to approve all adjustments in vaccine coverage put ahead by the brand new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. In June, Kennedy fired its members and changed them with a smaller group that features main opponents of the U.S. vaccination program.
When Monarez refused each requests, she stated, Kennedy instructed her to resign. She refused, and the White Home fired her, she stated.
Kennedy, in testimony this month, denied he’d made the ultimatums and stated Monarez had lied. Republican senators repeated that declare at Wednesday’s listening to. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma stated a recording of the Aug. 25 assembly contradicted Monarez’s account. However later within the listening to, Cassidy stated that Mullin had retracted his assertion, saying there was no such recording.
The listening to appeared to substantiate stories that Kennedy intends to alter the childhood vaccine schedule, shifting initially in opposition to recommending a hepatitis B vaccination shortly after beginning, a apply the CDC has supported for greater than three many years.
The CDC recommends that kids be vaccinated in opposition to 16 pathogens with about 25 pictures, sprays, or oral vaccinations of their first two years of life. The vaccines shield children in opposition to such ailments as influenza, measles, whooping cough, meningitis, diarrhea, chickenpox, most cancers, and pneumonia. It’s as much as states to resolve which vaccinations are required for schoolchildren.
Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) famous that for many years common vaccination of newborns for hepatitis B has lowered case charges of the illness amongst younger individuals by 99%, as reported by KFF Well being Information. Sens. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Cassidy (R-La.) requested about plans, first reported by KFF Well being Information, for ACIP to vote to advocate pushing the primary dose of the hepatitis B vaccine from the hours after beginning to age 4.
Cassidy, in closing the listening to, spoke gravely of the risks of ending the hepatitis B dose for newborns. He famous that earlier than 1991 as many as 20,000 infants would turn out to be contaminated with hepatitis B, typically resulting in liver illness and generally dying. At this time, fewer than 20 infants a yr contract the virus from their moms, he stated.
“That is an accomplishment to make America healthy again, and we should stand up and salute the people that made that decision,” he stated.
Requested by reporters after the listening to whether or not the American public ought to have faith within the advisory committee if it votes to delay the hepatitis B dose for newborns, he replied, “No.”
