Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended the Trump administration’s firing spree at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, promising ‘new blood’ will soon take over the agency.
‘America is home to 4.2% of the world’s population, yet we had nearly 20% COVID deaths,’ Kennedy said Thursday in front of the Senate Finance Committee. ‘We literally did worse than any country in the world.’
Kennedy said CDC leaders ‘who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving.’
‘And that’s why we need bold, competent and creative new leadership at CDC,’ he continued. ‘People are able and willing to chart a new course. As my father once said, progress is a nice word, a change that’s a motivator. And change has its enemies. That’s why we need new blood at the CDC.’
Kennedy testified before the committee hearing, which focused on President Donald Trump’s healthcare agenda and vaccine guidance. Senate Democrats grilled Kennedy on his moves to limit access to COVID-19 shots for children, his dismissal of health officials, and his ties to figures who have questioned the safety of mRNA vaccines.
In recent months, the Trump administration has carried out a sweeping shake-up inside the CDC and federal health agencies. All 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices were dismissed in June, and CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired in August. Kennedy has repeatedly argued the changes are necessary to restore public trust in health guidance.
Monarez, who had been in the position for less than a month after earning Senate confirmation, said in an op-ed that Kennedy and his aides told her she must either step down or face dismissal. She wrote that she was instructed to ‘pre-approve the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric.’
During the pandemic, the CDC recommended vaccines for children as young as six months and for pregnant women to help pass immunity to newborns, while older children were required to wear masks in schools and daycares.
For many, former National Institutes of Health Director Anthony Fauci’s shifting mask guidance became one of the most controversial flashpoints of the pandemic. In early 2020, he discouraged Americans from wearing masks, citing supply shortages and limited evidence of asymptomatic spread. Weeks later, the CDC reversed course and urged cloth mask use nationwide. Fauci later said the mixed messaging ‘fooled’ the public and fueled mistrust.