Susan Monarez, already acting director of the CDC, said during her confirmation hearing that she sees no causal link between vaccines and autism.
In her confirmatory hearing on Wednesday, Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CDC, affirmed her belief that vaccines are safe and “life-saving.”
“I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,” the infectious disease researcher and current acting director at the agency told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. “If I’m confirmed as CDC director, I will commit to making sure that we continue to prioritize vaccine availability.”
In response to a question from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about whether she thinks vaccines can cause autism, Monarez said, “I have not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism.”
Monarez has been serving in the top role at CDC since January, when Mandy Cohen stepped down after two years of service. In March, Monarez was nominated by Trump to officially become the agency’s director. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first CDC director to lack a medical degree in more than 50 years.
In the position, Monarez would work directly under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a founder of the Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit that has long maintained that vaccines cause autism. This claim has thoroughly and repeatedly been debunked by the scientific literature.
Monarez’s confirmation hearing came soon after news broke that Kennedy pulled U.S. funding from Gavi, the global vaccine alliance that works to provide immunizing shots to children in the poorest communities around the world. In explaining his decision, Kennedy blasted Gavi, which he said “ignored the science” regarding vaccine safety when it was inconvenient.
“Consider the best science available, even when the science contradicts established paradigms,” he told the alliance in a video speech played at a Gavi summit.
Monarez said she was not involved in the decision to withdraw support from Gavi.
Monarez on Wednesday also fielded questions about the recent shakeup that the CDC, particularly Kennedy’s recent decision to unilaterally purge the agency’s vaccine advisory board, or ACIP. The Secretary has since repopulated the committee, but with fewer members, some of whom have track records of vaccine criticism.
Monarez issued a soft defense of Kennedy in response. “These are not easy positions to fill,” she told the Senators on Wednesday. “It takes a lot of time and commitment from some of these highly trained technical experts to want to participate.”
Still, she conceded that “we absolutely need highly trained scientists and medical professionals” in these advisory roles. “The ACIP . . . is such a vital part of the CDC, it’s such a vital process in how we ensure that we have the understanding of benefit and the risk associated with any of these vaccines.”
With a background in immunology and microbiology, Monarez has built a career in public health. She has previously worked at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health as deputy director and in the past has also held roles within the Department of Homeland Security.
