RFK Jr. Defends Trump’s Pick to Lead CDC After Critics Lash Out on X

HHS Secretary Kennedy claims to have “handpicked’ Susan Monarez because she is a “longtime champion of MAHA values."

This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

Critics called out Susan Monarez, Ph.D., for her work in biosecurity agencies and her failure so far to criticize childhood vaccines. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he “handpicked’ Monarez because she is a “longtime champion of MAHA values, and a caring, compassionate and brilliant microbiologist and a tech wizard who will reorient CDC toward public health and gold-standard science.”

President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, Ph.D., came under fire on X immediately following yesterday’s announcement.

Trump tapped Monarez two weeks after he withdrew his first nominee, Dr. David Weldon. Weldon failed to secure enough votes, reportedly because of comments he made about the link between vaccines and autism.

Weldon had widespread support within the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) and health freedom movements.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he “handpicked Susan for this job because she is a longtime champion of MAHA values, and a caring, compassionate and brilliant microbiologist and a tech wizard who will reorient CDC toward public health and gold-standard science.”

But some MAHA supporters and health freedom activists who disagreed with Kennedy’s characterization took to X to vocalize their criticisms.

“Not afraid to call it what it is: another terrible mistake from the Trump admin,” the Died Suddenly account posted.

“We adamantly oppose Susan Monarez as the next CDC director,” posted Health Freedom Louisiana. “This would be an absolute travesty.”

Dr. Brian Tyson, a vocal critic of COVID-19 vaccines, wrote, “Trump is not serious about MAHA!! This is not going to help him.”

Toby Rogers, Ph.D., who was monitoring X when the news about Monarez broke, said there was “literally zero” support for Monarez on the platform — but many people were supporting Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who had been circulated as a possible nominee.

Kennedy responded on X to people who criticized posts on the CDC’s X account endorsing COVID-19 vaccines for children. He said the posts, erroneously attributed to Monarez, were written during the Biden administration, when Dr. Mandy Cohen was CDC director.

Monarez, who took over the official CDC X account when she was named acting director of the agency, did not write the pro-vaccine posts.

Critics on X also blasted Monarez for comments supporting masks and mandatory vaccines — posts that also were written by Cohen under the Biden administration.

Tucker: Monarez ‘ticks every deep state box’

Some critics raised concerns about Monarez’s work in biosecurity. Brownstone Institute’s Jeffrey Tucker said Monarez “ticks every deep state box.”

Tucker told The Defender there has been widespread outrage at Monarez’s appointment because she has worked for every major biosecurity agency — “the very

ones behind so much of the dangerous research and secretive goings on

that have created so many disasters.”

“On the face of it, that seems like very bad news,” Tucker said. However, he also said there may be more at play:

“Cleaning up the mess at the CDC requires more than a pundit, influencer or outspoken critic of the status quo. It will require expert management, experience with the problem, technical expertise and knowledge that comes only through long exposure to the world of classified information, backed by training in infectious disease.

“Monarez has all of that. With RFK at the helm, and serving as her boss, she could be empowered to do exactly what is necessary to open up the information systems to the public and clean up the agency in the way that’s needed.

“In other words, it takes a hacker to defeat the hackers. She might be precisely the one to do what needs to be done. We are waiting and hoping.”

Monarez assumed the acting director position a few days after Trump took office on January 23, leaving her job as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The agency, which operates under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was created by the Biden administration to accelerate “high-risk, high-reward” biomedical research.

ARPA-H is modeled after the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Monarez previously held roles at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Under President George W. Bush, she worked as an adviser to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.

In a recent DARPAtv video, Monarez promoted the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, touting its use by patients, providers and for the defense of “the health ecosystem.” Most of her comments were vague, but she celebrated ARPA-H’s plan to “fund anything” that furthers its mission.

ARPA-H, which is dedicated to increasing the use of generative AI in its operations and across the healthcare sector, had already received about $4 billion in funding as of November 2024.

Projects funded while Monarez was at ARPA-H include a program to use personal health data to predict and treat potential diseases before a person has symptoms. Another project would use generative AI to develop antibiotics.

Several projects — including one by defense contractor Raytheon — seek to use private health data to develop increasingly capable and “trustworthy” chatbots to be used in a wide range of patient care, starting with neonatal applications and mental health.

Others seek to train AI to develop medical technologies autonomously. Awards have gone to universities and private biotech firms.

Members of the biosecurity community, like Dr. Luciana Borio, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, expressed enthusiastic support for Monarez, telling STAT News that Monarez has “dedicated her life” to public service and biomedical research.

Will CDC study vaccines and autism under Monarez?

The New York Times reported that Monarez endorsed the COVID-19 vaccines, but little else is publicly known about her stance on other vaccines.

The CDC also confirmed earlier this month, before Trump withdrew Weldon’s nomination for CDC director, that the agency was planning a large study into potential connections between the vaccines and autism.

The agency did not respond by deadline when asked to clarify Monarez’s position on childhood vaccines, or whether the vaccines and autism study will take place under her leadership.

The CDC is responsible for making vaccine recommendations for Americans. It sets the increasingly controversial childhood immunization schedule, which most physicians use to determine which vaccines a child needs and which schools use to set vaccine mandates.

Once a vaccine is on the childhood schedule, the vaccine producer also receives broad protection from liability for injuries resulting from that vaccine. The combination of school vaccine mandates and no liability guarantees a steady revenue stream for vaccine makers.

Currently, the CDC recommends that by age 18, a child receive at least 76 doses of 18 different vaccines — including the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kennedy has said he would investigate the childhood schedule. He also postponed the regular meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, originally scheduled for Feb. 26-28.

Mainstream media expresses skepticism about Monarez

Monarez would be the first nonphysician to lead the CDC in more than 50 years. She earned a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

She will also be the first nominee to head the CDC to be voted on by the Senate. The CDC director has previously been an appointed position, CNN reported.

Mainstream media publications like the Times also expressed concern about Monarez’s nomination, saying her office has mostly acted as a conduit for directives from the White House and HHS.

It reported:

“Dr. Monarez has spent weeks away from Atlanta, where the agency is headquartered. She has not attended the agency’s all-hands meetings or offered reassurance to employees unsettled by the tumult of the past weeks, according to several C.D.C. employees who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.”

The Times also reported that Monarez worked with the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to make cuts to the agency.

Meanwhile, five high-level CDC officials today announced they are leaving the agency, in what The Associated Press (AP) called the “latest turmoil for the nation’s top public health agency.

According to the AP:

“CDC employees — including the organization’s leaders — have been bracing themselves for moves by the Trump administration to lay off staff and possibly dramatically reorganize the agency. White House officials are reviewing a work force reduction proposal for CDC and other federal health agencies that was submitted earlier this month. Its contents have not been disclosed.”

Newsweek said during her confirmation hearings, Monarez will face scrutiny over issues including staffing cuts at CDC, the delay in the CDC’s weekly research publication and the postponement of the vaccine advisory meeting.

Donate to Children’s Health Defense

---