President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one step closer to confirmation.
On Wednesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted to advance the nomination of Susan Monarez, a former agency acting director who has held various health-related roles in the federal government for 20 years.
Monarez advanced along a 12-11 party-line vote.
“She is committed to improving transparency to CDC and properly communicating health guidance to the American people,” said Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) “This is especially crucial as the nations combat reemerging public health threats like measles, which has taken three lives in the United States this year — one that’s not included, but is tragic, is the Canadian woman who was pregnant, got exposed to measles and lost her child — and hospitalized many more due to misinformation regarding the measles vaccine.”
Public health experts also say that Monarez is well-qualified to lead the agency — and hope she could become a bulwark against some of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine policy changes.
“There’s a delicate dance that she will have to do if she wants to maintain her job,” said Dr. Richard Besser, a former acting director of the CDC and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Understanding how to push back and when to push back will be critical to her success.”
Democrats, nonetheless, pushed back, citing Kennedy. “Dr. Monarez stood by while Secretary Kennedy spread misinformation about vaccines,” said ranking member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
ACIP role: In addition to running the CDC, Monarez will also have significant power over vaccine access if the full Senate confirms her.
Last month, Kennedy fired all the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — the expert panel that votes on updates to the childhood and adult vaccine schedules — and appointed new members more aligned with his views on vaccination. The panel later voted to stop recommending flu vaccines with thimerosal — a preservative that has for decades been deemed safe by health agencies — to anyone.
But before the panel’s recommendations become official, the CDC director or the HHS secretary must sign off on them.
Key context: Monarez has advanced further in the confirmation process than Dr. Dave Weldon, Trump’s first pick to run the agency. The administration dropped Weldon, a former Florida congressman with a long history of vaccine skepticism, when it became clear he did not have enough votes to advance.
A full Senate vote has yet to be scheduled on the nomination.
