Overview

• At a combative Senate Finance Committee hearing, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended firing CDC Director Susan Monarez and overhauling the agency’s vaccine panel, prompting bipartisan pushback from several Republicans and all Democrats.
• Kennedy denied Monarez’s claim that she was told to preapprove recommendations from his newly installed vaccine advisory panel, calling her account a lie, while acknowledging he directed her to dismiss career CDC staff.
• The FDA’s recent narrowing of COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to older adults and high‑risk people is already constraining availability as CVS and Walgreens scale back shots in multiple states, even as Kennedy insisted “anyone can get the booster.”
• California, Oregon and Washington said they will vet data and issue their own guidance after the ACIP ouster and leadership turmoil, reflecting eroding trust in federal recommendations and concerns about vaccine access this fall.
• Pressure on Kennedy escalated as more than 1,000 current and former HHS employees and over 20 medical and public‑health organizations publicly urged his resignation, citing mRNA funding cuts and the replacement of ACIP with vaccine skeptics.