Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) known as the Trump administration’s effort to fireplace Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez “outrageous” and urged the Senate to carry oversight hearings on the personnel adjustments.
“It’s outrageous that [Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] is trying to fire the CDC Director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health & vaccines,” Sanders, the rating member on the Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), wrote in a press release.
“The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible. Vaccines save lives. Period,” he continued.
The White Home on Wednesday fired Monarez, who was sworn in as CDC director only a month in the past, after she refused calls from HHS, which oversees the company, to resign.
4 high CDC officers introduced their resignations shortly thereafter, together with Deb Houry, the chief medical officer and the company’s deputy director for program and science.
HELP Committee Chair Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), who can also be a medical doctor, wrote on social platform X that the “excessive profile departures would require oversight by the HELP Committee.”
HHS launched a press release Wednesday night saying Monarez “is no longer” the top of the company, however her legal professionals pushed again.
“Monarez has neither resigned nor obtained notification from the White Home that she has been fired, and as an individual of integrity and dedicated to science, she is not going to resign,” attorneys Abe Lowell and Mark Zaid mentioned.
“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” they wrote.
The White Home subsequently introduced Monarez had been terminated.
“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” White Home spokesperson Kush Desai mentioned in a press release.
“Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC,” Desai added.
The New York Occasions reported Wednesday that Kennedy instructed Monarez to resign or be fired on Monday over tensions round vaccine coverage.
