(CNN) — Dr. Susan Monarez, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday that US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put politics before public health when he required that all CDC policy and personnel decisions be cleared by political staff.

Among those possible policy decisions: changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.

Monarez was ousted last month, just 29 days into her tenure as CDC director, amid clashes with Kennedy over vaccine policies. Dr. Debra Houry, who stepped down from her role as the CDC’s chief medical officer in protest after Monarez’s ouster, also testified in Wednesday’s hearing.

“I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity,” Monarez told the Senate Committee

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