Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: Ousted CDC Director Monarez says that RFK Jr. disparaged CDC employees
Posted
September 17, 2025
Views
1,288
Likes
36
Engagement
2.80%
September 17, 2025
1,288
36
2.80%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
2:32Now PlayingFormer CDC Director Susan Monarez told a senate committee Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. disparaged Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees, including calling the agency the most corrupt in the world and saying employees’ actions killed children.
Calling Kennedy’s assertions “particularly hurtful and disparaging,” she testified that the secretary called the CDC “the most corrupt federal agency in the world,” said agency employees “were horrible people,” alleging they killed children. He also said they were “bought by the pharmaceutical industry," she recalled.
“And the one I think that hurt me the most was a particularly vivid phrase. He said during the COVID outbreak, CDC told hospitals to turn away sick COVID patients until they had blue lips before allowing them to get treatment,” Monarez said.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked Monarez whether those statements were true.
“Those statements are not true,” Monarez replied.
Monarez testified in the hearing Wednesday about the political pressure she says she faced from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She says she was fired after she refused to preapprove vaccine recommendations from a CDC panel without seeing scientific evidence. Kennedy has denied these claims and told senators earlier this month that she was lying.
Monarez’s firing led to the resignations of several other top health officials, including chief medical officer Dr. Debra Houry, who also testified in Wednesday’s hearing.
The hearing comes a day before a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the panel that issues vaccine recommendations. Kennedy, known for his anti-vaccine advocacy, has come under fire for removing all members of the board and replacing them with people who align with his views. The panel is expected to vote on authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines, among others.
Sign up for Here's The Deal with Lisa Desjardins
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
