Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appeared for a confirmation hearing Wednesday during a critical time for an agency that’s in the midst of a reorganization and pressure from the administration on vaccine policy.
Monarez, previously deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health under the Health and Human Services Department, is well-respected in scientific circles and that could clear the path for her Senate confirmation. She was picked for the job after the Trump administration pulled the nomination of former congressman Dave Weldon, whose views on vaccines had worried some senators.
On Wednesday during the hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Monarez largely declined to distance herself from the decisions of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including firing members of a CDC vaccine advisory committee and his handling of the U.S. measles outbreak.
