‘Next Week Will be Telling’: Reporters Prepare for Ex-CDC Dir. Testimony

Next week former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez will testify in a Senate hearing. The reporters who cover health care in Washington think there could be big revelations about why Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired her.

Sandhya Raman, health care reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call, and Michael McAuliff, who covers policy for Modern Healthcare, join our Reporters’ Roundtable. McAuliff says no matter what is discovered during the testimony, Kennedy’s future still rests with President Trump.

In addition, McAuliff notes the federal health care workforce challenges right now. “If you look across…all the agencies in the HHS, you would find similar sorts of things where normal processes that help folks in the country just can’t happen because they just don’t have the people,” he observes. 

Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter also talk to the guests about the COVID vaccine controversy, the new Make America Healthy Again children’s health report and the looming threat of a government shutdown.

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