California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday he is hiring two former top officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who were pushed out by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or resigned in protest of his policies.
Susan Monarez, former CDC director, and Deb Houry, former CDC chief medical officer, will be working with the California Department of Public Health to help lead the launch of the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX).
Houry was one of several top CDC officials who resigned earlier this year in protest of what she described as Kennedy’s weaponization of public health. Monarez, a veteran of the federal public health workforce, was fired by Kennedy less than a month after being confirmed as CDC director over what she claims was her refusal to rubber-stamp changes to vaccine policy…