OAN Staff Blake Wolf
3:00 PM – Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Kentucky GOP Senator Rand Paul engaged in a heated exchange with former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez over the agency’s prior vaccine recommendation policies.
On Wednesday, during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) hearing, Senator Paul questioned Monarez about the CDC’s recommendations for COVID-19 shots for infants as young as six months.
Paul (R-Ky.) challenged Monarez on the scientific basis for such recommendations, and he also accused her of refusing to dismiss CDC staff who advocated for these “unscientific” policies, seemingly suggesting that her inaction contributed to the agency’s guidance.
Last month, Monarez was dismissed from the agency, less than a month into her tenure, for refusing to comply with directives from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.).
“Susan Monarez was tasked with returning the CDC to its core mission after decades of bureaucratic inertia, politicized science and mission creep corroded its purpose and squandered public trust. Instead, she acted maliciously to undermine the President’s agenda and was fired as a result,” stated HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon.
Speaking before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday, Monarez recounted the events and incidents that culminated in her testimony.
At one point during the hearing, Paul also questioned Monarez’s beliefs surrounding the “effectiveness” of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and newborns receiving hepatitis B shots.
“Does the COVID vaccine reduce hospitalization for children under 18?” Paul asked during the hearing.
“It can,” Monarez responded.
“It doesn’t,” Paul shot back. “The statistics are inconclusive, and the reason you can’t prove that it does is there’s so few people under 18 that go to the hospital. The numbers are extraordinarily small. There’s like 76,000,000 kids under 18 in our country, 183 died. A few thousand went to the hospital in 2020 and 2021. And since then the numbers have dropped precipitously.”
“The COVID vaccine is not reducing hospitalization, it’s not statistically significant. Does the COVID vaccine reduce the rate of death for children under 18?” Paul asked.
Monarez quickly responded, adding: “It can.”
“Once again, ‘it can.’ That’s a ridiculous answer. No it doesn’t, and there is no statistical evidence that it does reduce the death rate. These are statistics. We’ve looked at it,” Paul added.
In addition, Paul reproached Monarez for declining to back revisions to COVID-19 vaccine guidelines that would have excluded infants.
“You resisted firing people who have this idea that the COVID vaccine should be at six months. That’s what this is about,” Paul stated. “You didn’t resist firing the beautiful scientists, the career people … unobjective and unbiased. You wouldn’t fire the people who are saying that we have to vaccinate our kids at six months of age. That’s who you refuse to fire.”
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