The Trump administration mentioned Thursday the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) must align with the president’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda, after the elimination of its director and exodus of 4 different senior leaders.
In an interview on Fox Information’s “Fox & Friends,” Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the CDC for touting water fluoridation, vaccines and abortion as pillars of public well being.
“We need to look at the priorities of the agency,” Kennedy mentioned within the interview, “if there’s really a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency, and we need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions.”
“The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it — and we are fixing it,” Kennedy added. “And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”
Kennedy has sought to throttle entry to COVID-19 vaccines in current months, whereas overhauling the panel that has lengthy suggested the CDC on vaccine approvals. He has labored to shift the main focus of public well being businesses to environmental toxins that he blames for inflicting weight problems, autism and psychological well being points.
The New York Occasions reported Wednesday that Kennedy advised Monarez to resign or be fired on Monday over tensions round vaccine coverage. Legal professionals for Monarez have mentioned she refused to resign and could possibly be fired solely by Trump as a result of she was a Senate-confirmed presidential appointee.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday advised reporters Trump fired Monarez and plans to nominate her substitute quickly. She mentioned officers who refused to align with Trump’s MAHA agenda would face an identical destiny.
“Her lawyer’s statement made it abundantly clear … that she was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again,” Leavitt mentioned at a press briefing.
“If people are not aligned with the president or secretary’s vision to make America healthy again, then we will show them the door.”
4 high CDC officers introduced their resignations Wednesday night shortly after Monarez was fired, together with Deb Houry, the chief medical officer.
Kennedy mentioned within the interview it might be “inappropriate” to touch upon personnel points, however he was not stunned the 4 CDC officers resigned.
Demetre Daskalakis, head of the company’s Nationwide Middle for Immunization and Respiratory Ailments, was among the many officers who resigned. He posted his resignation letter on social media, citing variations with Kennedy that “challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people.”
“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
“I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us,” he added. “Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources.”
