By Associated Press Reporters,Irishexaminer.com

Copyright irishexaminer

Ms Monarez, who was fired after just 29 days on the job following disagreements with Mr Kennedy, told senators that deadly diseases like polio and whooping cough, long contained, are poised to make a comeback in the US.

“I believe preventable diseases will return, and I believe we will have our children harmed by things they don’t need to be harmed by,” Ms Monarez said before the Senate health committee.

Ms Monarez said she was ordered by Mr Kennedy to resign if she did not sign off new vaccine recommendations, which are expected to be released later this week by an advisory panel that Mr Kennedy has stocked with medical experts and vaccine sceptics.

She said that when she asked for data or science to back up Mr Kennedy’s request to change the childhood vaccination schedule, he offered none.

She added that Mr Kennedy told her “he spoke to the president every day about changing the childhood vaccination schedule”.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who chairs the powerful health committee, listened intently as Ms Monarez and Ms Houry described conversations with Mr Kennedy and his advisers.

“To be clear, he said there was not science or data, but he still expected you to change schedule?” Mr Cassidy asked.

He carefully praised President Donald Trump for his commitment to promoting health policies but made it clear he was concerned about the circumstances surrounding Ms Monarez’s removal.

Ms Houry, meanwhile, described similar exchanges with Mr Kennedy’s political advisers, who took an unprecedented role in preparing materials for meetings of the CDC’s advisory vaccine panel.

Ahead of this week’s meeting of the panel, Ms Houry offered to include data around the hepatitis B shot that is administered to newborns to prevent spread of the deadly disease from the mother.

She said a Kennedy adviser dismissed the data as biased because it might support keeping the shots on the schedule.

“You’re suggesting that they wanted to move away from the birth dose, but they were afraid that your data would say that they should retain it?” Mr Cassidy asked.

During the Senate hearing, Democrats, all of whom opposed Ms Monarez’s nomination, also questioned Mr Kennedy’s motives for firing Ms Monarez, who was approved for the job unanimously by Republicans.

“Frankly, she stood up for protecting the well-being of the American people, and for that reason she was fired,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats.

Ms Monarez said it was both her refusal to sign off new vaccination recommendations without scientific evidence and her unwillingness to fire high-ranking career CDC officials without cause that led to her ousting.

Mr Kennedy has denied Ms Monarez’s accusations that he ordered “rubber-stamped” vaccine recommendations but has acknowledged he demanded firings. He has described Ms Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy”, a claim se has denied through her attorney.

While Senate Republicans have been mostly loathe to challenge Mr Trump or even Mr Kennedy, many of them have expressed concerns about the lack of availability of Covid-19 vaccines and the health department’s decisions to scale back some childhood vaccines.

Others have backed up Mr Kennedy’s distrust of the nation’s health agencies.

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, a doctor, aggressively questioned Ms Monarez about her “philosophy” on vaccines as she explained that her decisions were based on science. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville said Mr Trump was elected to make change and suggested Ms Monarez’s job was to be loyal to Kennedy.

“America needs better than this,” Mr Tuberville said.