Is RFK Jr. 'Weaponizing Public Health'?

The CDC needs drastic reform, but RFK Jr.'s firing of agency head Susan Monarez does not achieve that.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on X that newly confirmed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez no longer held that position yesterday. Although the details are still murky, it seems HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to remove her because she objected to signing off on various vaccine recommendations backed by the secretary and his handpicked minions. Perhaps RFK Jr. intends to keep his promise to give infectious diseases an eight-year break.

Monarez, so far, has refused to step down. In a statement issued by her lawyers, they argue that as she had been confirmed by the Senate and that therefore only the president could fire her. They further asserted, "Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk."

They added, "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. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign."

Shortly thereafter, White House spokesman Kush Desai issued a statement asserting that since Dr. Monarez is "not aligned with the President's agenda of Making American Healthy Again," that "White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the C.D.C." Her attorneys responded that such a mere statement from a White House functionary was "legally deficient" and that she remained at her post. President Trump has so far not acted.

The drama may have come to close this afternoon. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt apparently confirmed that President Donald Trump has fired Monarez and announced that a new replacement for CDC director would be named very soon.

Immediately after RFK Jr. "fired" Monarez, several other senior CDC officials announced their resignations. Those leaving the agency are Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry; Daniel Jernigan, leader of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Demetre Daskalakis, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.

This follows RFK Jr.'s abrupt firing in June of the 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and then seeding it with eight new members, many of whom clearly harbor anti-vaccine sentiments. Let's not pretend not to know what we all in fact do know: Despite his testimony during his Senate confirmation hearings that he is not "anti-vaccine," RFK Jr. was the founder of America's leading anti-vaccine activist group, Children's Health Defense. Recall that he asserted back in 2021 that the COVID-19 vaccine "is the deadliest vaccine ever made." So, of course, he is going to pursue an anti-vaccine agenda.

And pursue it he has. Earlier this month, the HHS canceled $500 million in Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority mRNA vaccine research contracts. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it is recommending access to the updated COVID-19 vaccines be limited to folks "who are 65 years of age and older, or 12 years through 64 years of age with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19."

In the meantime, the largest measles outbreak in 30 years occurred on RFK Jr.'s watch. Hilariously, publishing magnate Steve Forbes posted on X "While Biden oversaw a 383% surge in measles, Trump's HHS under RFK Jr. swiftly contained Texas's outbreak with local cooperation, vaccines, and real leadership. Compassion + action = results."

This is a master class on how to lie with statistics. During the Biden administration's four years, the CDC recorded a total of 527 cases. In just the first seven months of the Trump administration, there have been 1,408 cases with 176 hospitalizations and three deaths. That's a 267 percent increase over the Biden administration's entire toll. Instead of immediately recommending measles vaccines at the beginning of the outbreak, RFK Jr. initially advised giving vitamin A to children. So much for "compassion," "action" and "results."

The CDC's manifold failures during the COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that it needs drastic reform and a return to its roots as an agency focused on fighting infectious epidemic disease. This evidently is not the sort of reform that RFK Jr. intends. Firing Monarez may not be "weaponizing public health," but it sure looks a lot like gutting it.