LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning that the nation's public health system is a, quote, "raging fire" under President Trump's health secretary. NPR's Vanessa Romo has more on why experts are urging lawmakers to act quickly.
VANESSA ROMO, BYLINE: The fallout from firing Susan Monarez, the CDC director, last week over a dispute about vaccine policies continues to draw ire from health experts. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long insisted the CDC has problems. Here he is on Laura Ingraham's show on Fox News in February, shortly after he took office.
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ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: We need to look at the priorities of the agency - if there's really a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency. And we need strong leadership that will go in there.
ROMO: On Monday, nine former CDC leaders who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations wrote in The New York Times, saying Kennedy's changes to the agency are, quote, "unlike anything our country has ever experienced." Since Kennedy's confirmation in January, there has been a massive brain drain at the agency, they say. That's due to a large-scale reduction in force and a series of high-level resignations following what they call Kennedy's politicized leadership of the agency. Kennedy says the president has high hopes for the CDC and hinted more leaders, like Monarez, may be fired in the future. In an interview with "Fox & Friends" on Thursday, he said...
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KENNEDY: The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it. And we are fixing it, and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.
ROMO: The letter's authors criticized Kennedy over the recent measles outbreak, saying he focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines. They're against his cancellation of medical research funding and his choices of nonmedical experts for federal health panels. The former CDC leaders said Congress must use its oversight power to protect the health of Americans. Americans, they say, need to rally to protect public health.
Vanessa Romo, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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