"During the nearly three-hour hearing, Monarez and Debra Houry, who resigned as the agency's chief medical officer when Monarez was fired in late August, were praised by Democratic senators for speaking out. Some Republican senators, meanwhile, portrayed Monarez as untrustworthy and out-of-step with Trump's and Kennedy's priorities. Here, Nature outlines three key ways that the former public-health officials said science is being set aside at the CDC in favour of politics."
"Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate, fired all 17 members of the panel in June and replaced them with a new, handpicked slate that included some who have questioned the safety of immunization publicly. Monarez testified that Kennedy told her there would be changes coming in September to the 'schedule' of vaccines recommended for children, and that if she wanted to keep her job, she was expected to accept the forthcoming votes from the panel."
Two former senior CDC scientists said they were dismissed or resigned after refusing to approve public-health decisions imposed by political appointees without scientific evidence. Susan Monarez served 29 days as CDC director before being fired after US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr demanded actions unlikely to improve public health; Monarez said she was fired for protecting scientific integrity and cited a major measles outbreak that killed two children. Monarez and Debra Houry testified to a Senate committee amid partisan responses. Three key concerns include pre-approval of vaccine schedule changes, replacement of advisory-panel members with vaccine skeptics, and pressure to accept predetermined votes.
Read at Nature
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]