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Fired US health agency chief testifies on pressure to 'replace evidence with ideology' / Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI - AFP
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Fired US health agency chief testifies on pressure to 'replace evidence with ideology'
The ex-chief of the US disease prevention agency told senators Wednesday she was fired for refusing to approve changes to childhood vaccine schedules not backed by scientific evidence, as the Trump administration moves to dismantle longstanding healthy policy.
The high-profile testimony follows last month's abrupt ouster of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Susan Monarez, who told lawmakers on the Senate Health Committee that US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also demanded she fire career scientists from the agency without cause.
"Even under pressure I could not replace evidence with ideology, or compromise my integrity," she told the panel.
"Vaccine policy must be guided by credible data, not predetermined outcomes."
The testimony comes one day before a highly anticipated meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices -- a body Kennedy has dramatically revamped, firing all of its members and replacing them with figures whose views mirror his own vaccine skepticism.
Monarez said Kennedy had demanded she agree to rubberstamp every recommendation that committee makes to the CDC.
She was fired less than a month after senators had voted to confirm her with unanimous support from Republican lawmakers.
Her testimony contradicts what Kennedy had told the Senate Finance Committee. He insisted he had only requested she keep an open mind and said that she ultimately hadn't been "trustworthy."
Under questioning from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy -- a physician who continues to vouch for the safety of vaccines, and who leads the Senate health committee -- Monarez said she told Kennedy she "would be open" to childhood vaccine schedule shifts if there were solid scientific data to back those changes up.
But Kennedy "did not have any data or science to point to," she said.
"To be clear, he said there was not science or data" but he "still expected you to change this?" Cassidy asked.
"Correct," Monarez responded.
Monarez's ouster was followed by the departure of several senior CDC officials from the body.
The former CDC chief medical officer, Debra Houry, also testified Wednesday, and said Kennedy "censored CDC science, politicized its processes and stripped leaders of independence."
"I could not in good conscience remain under those conditions."
Asked by Republican Susan Collins what the public health implications might be if major CDC decisions come from politicized ideology rather than hard science, Monarez said it could move the US into "a very dangerous place in public health."
"These are very important, highly technical discussions that have life-saving implications for our children and others who need vaccines."
Vaccines are safe and effective, according to overwhelming consensus of the scientific community, but critics say the Donald Trump administration has gone out of its way to sow doubt about them.
Z.Quintana--HdM
