前疾病控制和预防中心主任苏珊·莫纳雷斯周三表示，她被唐纳德·特朗普总统解雇健康公共服务部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪“坚守科学诚信”
莫纳雷斯在参议院健康委员会面前给出了一个详细的时间表，她说这一系列事件导致了她的突然下台。
她说，一个关键时刻是8月的一次会议，她说肯尼迪告诉她先发制人地接受疾控中心疫苗顾问小组的建议，并解雇监督疫苗政策的职业官员。
“我不会承诺，我相信这是我被解雇的真正原因，”莫纳雷斯说。莫纳雷斯说，当肯尼迪在会议上反驳时，她“非常不安”。
肯尼迪，在在另一个参议院小组的听证会上本月早些时候，莫纳雷斯对事件的说法提出了质疑。他否认在没有科学证据的情况下告诉Monarez接受疫苗建议，并声称她被解雇部分是因为她告诉他她不值得信任。
“我告诉她，她必须辞职，因为我问她，‘你是一个值得信任的人吗?’“她说，‘不，’”肯尼迪回答说。参议员，如果你的员工告诉你他们不值得信任，你会要求他们辞职吗?”肯尼迪在听证会上激烈地对民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦说。
共和党参议员周三就这一点向莫纳雷斯施压。"你有没有告诉秘书你不值得信任?"阿拉巴马州共和党参议员汤米·特伯维尔问莫纳雷斯。
“他告诉我，他不能信任我，因为我向他的员工以外的人透露了与我们谈话有关的信息。我告诉他，如果你不信任我，那么你可以解雇我，”莫纳雷斯回答说。
莫纳雷斯指的是她与该委员会主席、共和党参议员比尔·卡西迪的联系，她在与肯尼迪会晤期间联系了他，提醒他注意日益加剧的紧张局势。
在一次戏剧性的交流中，共和党参议员马克韦恩·马林指责莫纳雷斯在描述她与肯尼迪的私人谈话时不诚实，并声称会议已被录音。
卡西迪随后要求，如果这些材料已经提供给了马林，就应该提供给委员会的所有参议员。卡西迪还呼吁HHS公布录音，如果有的话。
“如果录音不存在，我要求参议员马林收回他的问题，”卡西迪说。
片刻之后，卡西迪打断了听证会，说有报道称，穆林告诉记者，他“错误地说RFK和莫纳雷斯的会面被录音了。”
卡西迪说:“但万一他错了，如果有录音，就应该公开。”。
来自路易斯安那州的医生卡西迪是确认甘乃迪的关键投票之一，他说周三的听证会是为了“彻底透明”
“我们今天的部分责任是问我们自己，如果有人在每个共和党人投票给她后29天被解雇，参议院确认她，国务卿在宣誓中说她有“无可指责的科学资历”，总统称她是一位令人难以置信的母亲和敬业的公仆——像发生了什么?我们失败了吗?有没有一些事情我们应该做得不同?”卡西迪说。
卡西迪告诉莫纳雷斯和前首席医疗官兼疾病预防控制中心项目和科学副主任德布·霍利(Deb Houry)，他们也出席了作证，“证明部长提出的批评不属实的责任在你身上。”
Houry是在Monarez被驱逐后辞职以示抗议的四名CDC高级官员之一。这些引人注目的离职给肯尼迪的疫苗政策议程敲响了警钟，公共卫生官员表示，他们被要求在没有足够科学依据的情况下批准该议程。
“莫纳雷斯博士是如何在不到一个月的时间里，从一个拥有无可指责的科学资历、对肯尼迪国务卿充满信心的公共卫生专家，变成一个说谎者和不可信任的人。这是一个相当大的转变。嗯，我认为答案是相当明显的。佛蒙特州独立议员伯尼·桑德斯周三表示:“莫纳雷斯博士被解雇了，因为她拒绝充当执行肯尼迪部长危险议程的橡皮图章，该议程旨在大幅限制使用安全有效的疫苗，这些疫苗会危及美国人民和全世界人民的生命。”。
肯尼迪支持疾病预防控制中心最近的改组，称这是“绝对必要的调整，以恢复该机构作为世界黄金标准公共卫生机构的角色，其核心使命是保护美国人免受传染病的影响。”
周三，Monarez对Kennedy对HHS的改变表示关注，包括他替换了CDC疫苗咨询委员会的所有成员。
CDC咨询委员会计划于周四召开会议，更广泛地讨论疫苗建议，包括麻疹、腮腺炎、风疹、水痘(MMRV)疫苗和呼吸道合胞病毒(RSV)。
“根据我在任期内观察到的情况，不经过严格的科学审查，就可能提出限制儿童和其他有需要的人获得疫苗的建议，这种风险确实存在。由于CDC没有常任理事，这些建议可能会被采纳，”Monarez说。
据莫纳雷斯说，肯尼迪告诉她，儿童疫苗接种计划将在9月份改变，“我需要参与进来。”
“说清楚一点，他说没有科学和数据，但他还是希望你改变日程安排?”卡西迪问道。
“正确，”莫纳雷斯说。
HHS官员周三反驳了Monarez的证词，称其包含“事实不准确和遗漏了重要细节”
在一份声明中，一名发言人还指责她“恶意破坏总统的议程”，称她限制了特朗普政治任命人员的徽章访问权，并在没有告诉任何人的情况下取消了肯尼迪任命的一名官员。
Susan Monarez, former CDC director, tells Senate committee 'true reason' she believes she was fired
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez on Wednesday said she was fired by President Donald Trump andHealthand Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for "holding the line on scientific integrity."
Monarez gave a detailed timeline before the Senate's Health committee on the chain of events that she said led to her abrupt ousting.
A pivotal moment, she said, was an August meeting in which she said Kennedy told her to preemptively accept recommendations from a CDC vaccine advisory panel and to fire career officials overseeing vaccine policy.
"I would not commit to that, and I believe it is the true reason I was fired," Monarez said. Monarez said Kennedy was "very upset" when she pushed back in the meeting.
Kennedy, in ahearing before a different Senate panelearlier this month, disputed Monarez's version of events. He denied telling Monarez to accept vaccine recommendations without scientific evidence, and claimed she was fired in part because she told him she was untrustworthy.
"I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, 'Are you a trustworthy person?' And she said, 'No,'" Kennedy replied. "If you had an employee who told you they weren't trustworthy, would you ask them to resign, Senator?" Kennedy had told Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a fiery exchange at that hearing.
Republican senators pressed Monarez on Wednesday on that point. "Did you tell the secretary you were untrustworthy?" Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, asked Monarez.
"He told me he could not trust me because I had shared information related to our conversation beyond his staff. I told him, if you cannot trust me, then you can fire me," Monarez replied.
Monarez was referring to her outreach to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, the chair of the committee, whom she contacted in between meetings with Kennedy to alert him to the growing tension.
In one dramatic exchange, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin accused Monarez of being dishonest in her characterization of her private conversation with Kennedy and claimed the meeting had been recorded.
Cassidy then requested if such materials had been provided to Mullin that they be made available to all of the senators on the committee. Cassidy also called on HHS to release a recording if it had one.
"If a recording does not exist, I ask Senator Mullin to retract his line of questions," Cassidy said.
Moments later, Cassidy interrupted the hearing to say that there were reports that Mullin had told reporters he was "mistaken in saying that the RFK-Monarez meeting was recorded."
"But in case he was mistaken that he was mistaken, if there is a recording, it should be released," Cassidy said.
Cassidy, a doctor from Louisiana who was one of the key votes to confirm Kennedy, said Wednesday's hearing was in the aim of "radical transparency."
"Part of our responsibility today is to ask ourselves, if someone is fired 29 days after every Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the secretary said in her swearing in that she has 'unimpeachable scientific credentials' and the president called her an incredible mother and dedicated public servant -- like what happened? Did we fail? Was there something we should have done differently?" Cassidy said.
Cassidy told Monarez and Deb Houry, the former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the CDC who also sat for testimony, that "the onus is upon you to prove that the criticisms leveled by the secretary are not true."
Houry was one of four top CDC officials who resigned in protest after Monarez was ousted. The high-profile departures raised alarm over Kennedy's vaccine policy agenda, which the public health officials said they were being asked to endorse without adequate science.
"How did Dr. Monarez go from being a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, who had the full confidence of Secretary Kennedy into being a liar and untrustworthy in less than a month. That is quite a transformation. Well, I think the answer is fairly obvious. Dr. Monarez was fired because she refused to act as a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy's dangerous agenda to substantially limit the use of safe and effective vaccines that would endanger the lives of the American people and people throughout the world," Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said on Wednesday.
Kennedy stood by the recent shakeups at CDC, saying they were "absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world's gold standard public health agency with a central mission of protecting Americans from infectious disease."
Monarez on Wednesday expressed concern on Kennedy's changes to HHS, including his replacement of all members on the CDC vaccine advisory committee.
The CDC advisory committee is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss vaccine recommendations more broadly, including the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
"Based on what I observed during my tenure, there is real risk that recommendations could be made restricting access to vaccines for children and others in need without rigorous scientific review. With no permanent CDC director in place, those recommendations could be adopted," Monarez said.
According to Monarez, Kennedy told her the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing in September and "I needed to be on board with it."
"To be clear, he said there was not science or data, but that he still expected you to change the schedule?" Sen. Cassidy asked.
"Correct," Monarez said.
HHS officials pushed back against Monarez's testimony Wednesday, saying it contained "factual inaccuracies and left out important details."
In a statement, a spokesperson also accused her of acting "maliciously to undermine the President's agenda," alleging that she limited badge access for Trump's political appointees and removed one of Kennedy's appointees without telling anyone.
