The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.
Susan Monarez was the president’s second pick to head the agency after the White House pulled Dave Weldon’s nomination, which Weldon said was due to a lack of Senate support for his nomination. Monarez is the first CDC head to be confirmed by the Senate, a move necessitated under a 2023 law.
The Senate confirmed Monarez, who already heads the agency as acting director, in a 51 to 47 vote. Monarez now stands to head up an agency in the middle of an overhaul led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to slash the CDC’s budget by over 40% after the health agency has received heavy criticism in recent years, especially for its handling of the COVID pandemic. During the outbreak of the disease and, at times, for years after, the CDC recommended actions that had little basis in scientific evidence.
For instance, the agency issued its six-feet separation guidance in March 2020 based on no discernible evidence, according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which issued a final report on the pandemic in December. Despite the lack of a scientific foundation, the guidance went unrevised until August 2022.
“There were no scientific trials or studies conducted before this policy was implemented, there appeared to be no pushback or internal discussion amongst the highest level of leadership, and more importantly there appears to be no acceptance of responsibility,” the 557-page report states. “That is an unacceptable answer from public health leadership. Decisions of this magnitude must have scientific backing that can be explained to the American public.”
The CDC’s guidance on mask-wearing and school closures was also compromised, according to the House report.
The CDC presented 15 studies on mask-wearing that it said support its guidance to require masks in public spaces, including on public transit and in schools. Each study was significantly flawed, however, and none of them were randomized controlled trials, considered the “gold standard” of such evidence.
“The trajectories of the rate of COVID-19 infections for states with mask mandates and states without is virtually identical,” the House report notes. “It is apparent that the CDC and the Biden Administration cherry-picked observational data to fit their narrative that masks are fully effective.”
The report notes that CDC “caused quantifiable harm” in its recommendation for universal masking inside primary schools. The recommendation remained in place for nearly two years, from April 2020 to late February 2022, with a brief break from May to July 2021.
The CDC’s choice to recommend universal masking was more onerous than the World Health Organization’s guidance. The WHO declined to recommend masking for children ages five and under, and said children ages six to 11 should not routinely wear masks because of “potential adverse impact to psychosocial and learning development,” according to the House report.
Isolation and forced masking appears to have slowed development for many children.
“Ignoring the science and facts of COVID-19 and the harms of masking young children was profoundly immoral on behalf of the leadership of the country’s public health officials. The future consequences of these types of draconian policies are not yet known, but public health leaders in the future should remember that all policy must be decided in a balanced manner,” the report notes.
