Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday called Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s firing of all 17 experts on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine panel “excessive,” but cautioned she needs to learn more about the decision.

Kennedy announced the decision in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, catching many GOP lawmakers by surprise.

“I did not know that that had happened,” Collins, a senior member of the Senate Health Committee. “It seems to me to be excessive to ask for everybody’s resignations but I can’t judge because I don’t know who he’s replacing them with.”

The Maine senator said the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee “provided helpful guidance to the public on what they should do.”

Collins said that Kennedy didn’t promise

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