Susan Monarez, the ousted director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has stood by her statement that she was fired after resisting changes to vaccine policy advanced by US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, that she believed contradicted scientific evidence.
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Monarez said she had been directed to pre-approve vaccine recommendations and fire career CDC officials, describing her ouster as part of a broader push to weaken US vaccine standards.