The nation’s top health agency is not well, according to a portrait that emerged in testimony Wednesday by two of its former leaders.

Susan Monarez, abruptly fired 29 days into her tenure as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Debra Houry, who resigned as chief medical officer that day, provided new detail about stresses on the agency under questioning at a hearing before a Senate health committee.

Each described an organization hollowed out not just by job losses but also by a new internal climate of fear chilled by external mistrust of science. And the turmoil at the agency is hurting its ability to support health agencies around the country and the world, they said.

CDC scientists are now reluctant to be named at an advisory panel’s meeting Thursday and Fr

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