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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in turmoil after Susan Monarez, the newly confirmed director of the public-health agency, was abruptly fired on Wednesday night following a reported behind-the-scenes clash with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy. Monarez’s ouster was followed by other top CDC officials resigning due to the agency’s direction under the Trump administration.
With the nation’s top public-health agency appearing to spiral out of control, many Democrats called for an investigation into Monarez’s ouster, and some demanded Kennedy’s resignation. But Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana senator and licensed physician, whose key vote ensured Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS, was a bit less forceful.
In the immediate aftermath of Monarez’s firing, Cassidy wrote on social media that “These high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee,” referring to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which he is the chairman of. But Cassidy notably gave no indication of what that oversight might look like in practice.
On Thursday, Cassidy issued a call for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the CDC panel that determines vaccine recommendations, to postpone its upcoming meeting in September, saying in a statement that “serious allegations” have been made about the committee membership as well as the “lack of scientific process being followed” for the scheduled gathering. Back in June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of ACIP, writing in a Wall Street Journal editorial that the panel “has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
But Cassidy previously called for the ACIP to postpone an upcoming meeting back in June, citing the lack of scientific experience of some of the newest appointees as well as the lack of a CDC director at the time. The panel simply rebuffed Cassidy’s call and went ahead anyway.
According to the Washington Post, Monarez contacted Cassidy after Kennedy handed her an ultimatum to either resign or support changes to the nation’s COVID-19 vaccines policies. Sources tell the outlet that Cassidy contacted Kennedy to push back against his demands of Monarez, which further angered the HHS secretary. When Cassidy first announced his plans to support Kennedy’s confirmation, he said the two would work closely together and that he would use his role as HELP chairman to act as a check on the agency. However, Kennedy has continue to reshape the country’s public-health landscape to his making with seemingly little impact from Cassidy’s voiced concerns.
Monarez, who was nominated by President Donald Trump earlier this year, had held the role of CDC director for a little less than a month after being confirmed by the Senate in late July. Kennedy had said in March that he had “handpicked” Monarez, calling her a “longtime champion of MAHA values. The Post reports that Jim O’Neill, the current deputy HHS secretary, has been tapped to serve as the interim director of the CDC.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, the independent ranking member on the HELP committee, issued a letter calling for a bipartisan investigation into Monarez’s firing and the resignation of top CDC officials, urging Cassidy to convene a hearing on the matter. “Yesterday, you called for oversight of the firings and resignations at the agency. I agree. As a start, the American people should hear directly from Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Monarez, and every member of our committee should be able to ask questions and get honest answers from them. I urge you to call a hearing immediately on these actions,” he wrote.
Some of the remaining employees of the CDC voiced their support of Monarez and the other outgoing officials on Thursday by staging a “clap out” at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. for their departing colleagues.
