The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta. Photographer: Ben Hendren/Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isn’t sufficiently aligned with President Donald Trump’s agenda and it needs an overhaul, a day after the White House fired the director following an intense clash over vaccines.
The agency has made numerous critical errors and is likely suffering from a “deeply embedded malaise,” Kennedy said in a Fox News interview Thursday, adding that he’s “not surprised” over the current staff upheaval at the CDC.
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CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted by the Trump administration Wednesday after clashing with Kennedy over his critical view of vaccines, people familiar with the matter said. Security personnel were seen escorting the senior leaders who resigned from the Atlanta campus.
A replacement CDC director will be named soon, according to White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
The changes underway at the agency could have wide ranging consequences for public health policy in the US and the pharmaceutical industry, which has embraced the development of novel shots to ward off infectious diseases. The CDC scheduled a meeting of its key vaccine panel for September as it plans a review of the shots that are currently the bedrock of the nation’s immunization schedules.
Susan MonarezPhotographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg
Attorneys representing Monarez said that she was being “targeted” because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” Following the apparent ousting, three other top CDC officials resigned, with some openly condemning Kennedy while doing so.
“Some people should not be working there,” Kennedy said, in response to a question about the resignations.
The HHS secretary, a longtime vaccine critic, has alarmed public health experts by seeking changes at the agency around immunizations. He fired a panel of advisers who make recommendations on which shots Americans should get and replaced them with people who questioned their safety.
One of the points of contention between Kennedy and Monarez over the last week involved the vaccine panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy asked the director to confirm she would approve any recommendation that came from the group, which now includes vaccine critics, according to Rich Besser, a former acting CDC director who spoke to Monarez before her ouster.
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Monarez refused the request, as well as a demand to fire the CDC’s leadership team, Besser said.
He talked with Monarez about her “lines in the sand” of what she wouldn’t do. Monarez said she would not do anything illegal or anything that “flew in the face of science,” according to Besser.
Monarez couldn’t be reached for comment.
WATCH: The Trump administration fired US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez just weeks into her tenure. Madison Muller reports.Source: Bloomberg
Kennedy’s drug regulators also limited who could get Covid boosters this fall without first speaking to a doctor to those 65 and over or with underlying conditions. Last year, no one over 6 months had to consult with a physician to get a Covid booster.
Medical groups have called Kennedy’s tougher stance on vaccines dangerous and have recommended most people still get Covid boosters and other shots.
The upheaval has stoked anxiety among vaccine manufacturers, according to people familiar with the matter, exacerbating fears about further crackdowns. The departure of Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was particularly alarming, two of the people said, as he had been a reliable point of contact at the increasingly disorganized agency.
It’s also drawn the ire of Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who voted to confirm Kennedy after getting assurances about the future of immunizations in the US. Cassidy is the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He’s also a member of the Senate Finance Committee, where Kennedy is slated to testify about other issues on Sept. 4.
On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders called for a congressional investigation into Monarez’s firing. Sanders is the ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee.
Kennedy’s efforts could have disastrous consequences for the roughly $77 billion global vaccine industry, which has nearly doubled in size since 2019 thanks to demand for shots to prevent Covid infections and the cancer-causing virus HPV, according to the World Health Organization.
In the US, manufacturers have long depended on an established system in which the Food and Drug Administration approves new shots and the CDC issues influential recommendations covering who should get them. Sweeping changes to either agency could discourage investment in vaccine research and lead to fewer new shots in the future.
–With assistance from Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Josh Eidelson.
(Updates with White House comment in fourth paragraph, former acting CDC director comment in eighth paragraph.)
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