Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, who was ousted after resisting changes to vaccine policy that were advanced by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, walks to testify before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, who was ousted after resisting changes to vaccine policy that were advanced by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, looks on as she testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) attend a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing with former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez (not pictured), who was ousted after resisting changes to vaccine policy that were advanced by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. CDC Director Susan Monarez told a Senate panel on Wednesday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told her two days before her August firing that the childhood vaccination schedule would change in September.

Kennedy asked her to commit to approving the changes before reviewing scientific evidence, Monarez said.

Kennedy also asked for blanket approval of the recommendations of the agency's vaccine advisory board and required her to seek her own political staff's approval for her policy and personnel decisions before ultimately firing her, Monarez said.

Monarez, who helmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 29 days, was fired on August 27 after clashing with Kennedy over vaccine policy. She told the Senators that Kennedy told her he had spoken with the White House several times about having her removed.

A microbiologist and immunologist who has worked at various government agencies since 2006, Monarez was confirmed as CDC director on July 30, the first required to have Senate approval.

She is now at the nexus of a debate over the future of U.S. vaccination policy, in which Kennedy has pushed to scale back the use of vaccines and U.S. public health experts and medical doctors have called for him to resign, saying his policies will hurt Americans.

Some Republicans have also expressed concern over Kennedy's proposed policies to decrease vaccine access, including Senator Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, who invited Monarez, as well as former Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry to the hearing.

At the Wednesday hearing, Cassidy said in opening remarks that the country needs unbiased, politics-free, evidence-based science.

"Part of our responsibility today is to ask ourselves: if someone is fired 29 days - after every Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the Secretary said in her swearing in that she was quote 'unimpeachable scientific credentials', and the President called her an incredible mother and dedicated public servant - what happened? Did we fail? Was there something we should have done differently?" Cassidy said.

KENNEDY SOUGHT PRE-APPROVAL FOR VACCINE CHANGES

Monarez was the first non-physician appointed to the position in 50 years, brought in as acting director after Trump took office. She was most recently the deputy director of a federal health research agency and previously worked in the Department of Homeland Security and the White House.

She provided details of the exchange she had with Kennedy before she was fired. On August 25, Kennedy told Monarez that "the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing certainly in September," she said. Kennedy asked her to commit to approving changes to the vaccine schedule before reviewing scientific evidence, Monarez said.

Kennedy also directed her to commit in advance to approve every recommendation by Kennedy's handpicked committee members, regardless of the scientific evidence, and to fire officials responsible for vaccine policy.

Monarez told the Senate committee that she had been open to changing the childhood vaccine schedule if there was supportive evidence, but would not commit to blanket approval. Kennedy told her that "there was no science or evidence associated with the childhood vaccine schedule" and that if she could not commit to signing off on the changes, that she needed to resign.

Monarez previously detailed the reason behind her ouster in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

Kennedy denied during a September 4 Senate Finance Committee hearing that he ordered Monarez to pre-approve decisions, but said he had ordered her to fire officials.

EXPERT ADVISERS FIRED

Two of the vaccines on the children's vaccine schedule will be discussed on Thursday at a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, now populated with 12 new handpicked members. Kennedy fired all 17 members in June.

Asked during the hearing how CDC staff were preparing for the upcoming vaccine advisory committee meeting, Houry said there had not been any work group meetings apart from COVID vaccines. Work groups are charged with gathering and ranking available data ahead of the meeting and make recommendations on how advisers should vote.

Kennedy has narrowed eligibility for COVID shots and cut funding for the development of new vaccines using the mRNA technology that was the basis of vaccines widely used during the pandemic.

Criticism of Kennedy has intensified since Monarez's firing, which triggered resignations of four CDC officials, citing anti-vaccine policies and misinformation he and his team are pushing.

Among them was Houry, who had been at the CDC for a decade and served under six different presidential administrations. Prior to joining the CDC, Houry spent a decade as an emergency room physician.

CDC leaders "were expected to serve as rubber stamps" for Kennedy's decisions, Houry said in prepared written testimony.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Writing by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Nick Zieminski)