Washington — Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention penned an op-ed Monday condemning Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership in the aftermath of the firing of the CDC director last week, claiming he is “endangering every American’s health.”
“What the health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has done to the CDC and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago — is unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced,” the nine former directors and acting directors wrote in the op-ed in The New York Times.
The Trump administration attempted to oust CDC Director Susan Monarez last week, less than a month after she was confirmed by the Senate, although her lawyers have pushed back on the legality of her firing. Meanwhile, several other top CDC officials have resigned in recent days, pointing to disagreements with the Trump administration over its vaccine policy, among other things. CBS News reported last week that Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has been selected to serve as the acting director of the CDC.
In their op-ed, the former CDC directors who served under both Democrat and Republican administrations, pointed to a number of decisions by Kennedy that they say are “unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency,” including canceling investments into medical research and the move to replace members on a key vaccine advisory committee, among other things.
“Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top CDC officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire,” the former CDC directors added.
The CDC leaders said they “applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities.”
“The loss of Dr. Monarez and other top leaders will make it far more difficult for the CDC to do what it has done for about 80 years: work around the clock to protect Americans from threats to their lives and health,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, the former CDC directors also called on Congress to exercise its oversight authority over the department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is one of a number of agencies under the HHS umbrella.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called on HHS last week to “indefinitely postpone” its vaccine advisory committee meeting scheduled for Sept. 18 amid the slew of CDC departures. And the Louisiana Republican, who delivered the key vote to advance Kennedy’s confirmation as secretary, also said the “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.”
In an appearance on Fox News last week after the CDC director firing, Kennedy said he wouldn’t comment on personnel, but claimed that “the CDC has problems,” citing COVID-19 protocols among them.
“We need to look at the priorities of the agency, if there’s really a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency,” Kennedy said. “And we need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions.”
Kennedy is set to appear before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday to testify on President Trump’s health care agenda.
Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, says the timing of the op-ed “has everything to do with Dr. Monarez’s firing last week,” but she added that “the concerns that they outlined are really about politics and ideology taking precedence over public health and science.”
Citing the firings of federal health workers across HHS, the weakening of public health programs, questions about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines amid a serious measles outbreak in Texas, among other things, Gounder said on “CBS Mornings Plus” that “we really are very concerned about how this is now diminishing trust in the very most basic of public health infrastructure in this country.”