By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Fired U.S. CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was ousted after resisting changes to vaccine policy that were advanced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, will testify to U.S. Congress next week.
Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday that the panel will hold a hearing on September 17.
The hearing will include Monarez and Deb Houry, former chief medical officer of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Monarez was fired in late August less than a month after being sworn in, and four senior officials, including Houry, resigned amid growing tensions over vaccine policies and public health directives.
President Donald Trump’s administration has made sweeping changes to vaccine policies, including withdrawing federal recommendations for COVID-19 shots for pregnant women and healthy children in May. It also fired all members of the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel in June, whom Kennedy replaced with hand-picked advisers including fellow anti-vaccine activists.
THE RESPONSE
Multiple health groups, medical associations and current and former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services employees have called on the health secretary to step down, saying he was disregarding decades of lifesaving science and reversing medical progress.
CONTEXT
Trump has thus far stood by his health chief, who is upending the U.S. healthcare system, despite congressional pressure, public health concerns and the political risks of changing vaccine policies nationwide.
“He’s a, a very good person … and he means very well, and he’s got some little different ideas,” Trump said about Kennedy last week.
Kennedy has said his mission was to “restore” the CDC’s focus on infectious disease and “rebuild trust through transparency and competence.”
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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