WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday said he will fix the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one day after the White House fired the health agency’s director.
The White House late Wednesday said that CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired because she “refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so,” adding that she was not “aligned with the president’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.”
Monarez’s attorneys, Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, rejected the White House statement, saying the firing notification was legally deficient and that she remains CDC Director.
“As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her,” the lawyers said in a statement on Wednesday. They said she was notified by a White House personnel office staff member.
The leadership upheaval comes as Kennedy has made sweeping changes to vaccine policies since taking office this year, including firing the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel members and replacing them with fellow anti-vaccine activists and other hand-picked advisers.
On Thursday, Kennedy declined to comment on the specifics of the departure of Monarez and four other top officials at the agency, saying they were personnel issues.
“The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it and we are fixing it. And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” Kennedy told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” program in an interview.
“We need strong leadership that will go in there, and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions for this agency,” he added.
Monarez was targeted for refusing to support “unscientific, reckless directives” and dismiss health experts, her attorneys said in a separate statement on Wednesday.
The dispute drew the attention of U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Bill Cassidy, who said the panel would need to act.
“These high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee,” Cassidy said in a post on X late Wednesday, as CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry and National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Demetre Daskalakis also announced their resignations.
Representatives for Cassidy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what action the committee was planning.
On Wednesday, U.S. health regulators narrowed approval for updated COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy previously withdrew federal recommendations for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children.
Cassidy, a Republican doctor from Louisiana, had expressed wariness about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views before clearing the path for him to become the nation’s top health official.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, David Thomas and Costas Pitas; Editing by Caroline Humer, Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
