WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccines loomed over Susan Monarez’s Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday to be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Monarez, who has a doctorate in microbiology and immunology, was previously the deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a federal research funding agency focused on biomedical innovations. Her previous work looked at using artificial intelligence to improve health outcomes.
If confirmed, she would be the first CDC director without a medical degree in more than 70 years.
The roughly two-hour hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday was mostly cordial.
Senators expressed typical concerns about issues affecting their states, such as lead poisoning, overdose deaths and even dog sled races. Monarez promised each member that she’d look into such issues if confirmed.
The main sticking point among mostly Democratic senators, however, was whether Monarez would stand her ground against Kennedy and his efforts to reshape the country’s vaccine public health infrastructure.
“Secretary Kennedy is giving a platform to people who lie about vaccines,” Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said. “I hope you will be forceful in pushing back against Secretary Kennedy’s assessments and messaging to the public.”
When she was acting CDC director, Monarez carried out directives from the White House to scrub the agency’s website of anything related to “gender ideology” before a judge ordered the agency to restore pages it had deleted. The purge had included a number of pages related to HIV.
Coinciding with Wednesday’s hearing was a CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting to discuss a recommendation for a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Earlier this month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the committee — known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — and replaced them with eight new members. The new members include well-known vaccine critics. One person dropped out at the last minute due to potential financial conflicts, said HELP committee chair Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who underscored the importance of the CDC director’s role in recommending vaccines.
“If the ACIP meeting today is being used to sow distrust, I would ask, as you go forward, that you make sure that there really is a balanced perspective,” Cassidy said. On Monday, Cassidy called for the ACIP meeting to be delayed until more members with relevant expertise could be appointed. The meeting proceeded as scheduled.
Monarez stood firm on some issues that Kennedy might not: She acknowledged that vaccines save children’s lives and said areas with fluoridated water were safe.
But she often sidestepped questions about whether she disagreed with decisions made by the health secretary, including on ACIP, a move that appeared to frustrate many Democrats.
During a tense back-and-forth with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Monarez refused to say whether she agreed with Kennedy’s past comments about vaccines and measles, only noting that she would be an “independent thinker” if confirmed.
“I am very concerned that a CDC nominee who says she wants to be independent and will apply science is so unwilling to speak publicly about scientific evidence that contradicts the secretary,” Hassan said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., shared a similar sentiment when grilling Monarez about recent job cuts at the CDC under Kennedy.
“I’ve got questions about your willingness to follow through on your values,” Kaine told Monarez.
The need for a new CDC leader is urgent as the agency has endured massive upheaval in recent months. HHS gutted multiple CDC public health programs. Kennedy has spread vaccine disinformation, even as the nation is on track to surpass the largest number of measles cases since 2019.
Morale is low, according to a CDC employee who was not authorized to speak to the media.
Staffers are “so ready for leadership of any kind at CDC,” the person said. “It is clear that CDC will be different with so many programs that have been axed. But we really need to be able to move forward with important work that ground to a halt.”
Monarez briefly served as the CDC’s acting director at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. She stepped down from the acting position when she was officially nominated for the role after Trump’s first pick, former Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., was pulled from consideration just hours before his confirmation hearing was set to begin on March 13.
At the time, it appeared that Weldon — who’d previously criticized the CDC and questioned the safety of vaccines — didn’t have the votes to be confirmed. He has a history of questioning the safety of vaccines, including the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, falsely linking it to autism.
