At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez said she was fired from her role for not rubber-stamping vaccine recommendations from her boss, health and human services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , regardless of whether they were backed by scientific evidence.

Just two months after Monarez was sworn in to the job, HHS announced on August 27 that she was no longer the director of the CDC. She had been the acting director since January and was the first CDC director to receive Senate confirmation after a law took effect this year requiring the president’s nominee to receive Senate approval. Her ousting led to an exodus of top CDC officials from the agency.

On July 30, when Monarez was sworn in, Kennedy rem

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