Former CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry says HHS direction under RFK Jr. has caused “irreparable harm”

Dr. Debra Houry, the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “caused a lot of irreparable harm,” in remarks that aired Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Houry, who resigned from the CDC last summer after more than a decade at the agency, tied her criticism to what she described as changes to CDC personnel, guidance-setting processes, and public confidence in the agency.

Houry told host Margaret Brennan that public trust in federal public health and specifically in the CDC has declined “over 20 points in many polls,” adding that she believes such a loss is “really difficult to recover from” and that states have begun removing links to the CDC website and shifting to other medical organizations. Houry’s comments were framed around the effect of the CDC’s direction and the public’s willingness to follow CDC guidance rather than a specific single program or regulation.

The interview also described disputes over CDC leadership and vaccine policy governance following Kennedy’s tenure at HHS. According to Houry’s account as reported by The Hill, Kennedy took office in February 2025 and imposed what she characterized as sweeping authority over the CDC, including forcing out then-CDC Director Susan Monarez in August 2025 amid disagreements on vaccine policy. Houry said her resignation followed the personnel changes.

Houry further criticized the composition and operation of the CDC’s vaccine advisory structure under Kennedy. Reporting compiled from her remarks indicates Kennedy replaced members of a vaccine advisory panel with selections he made, and that the panel later adjusted childhood-immunization guidance, reducing the number of shots recommended for children. Those claims were paired with reporting that a federal judge blocked the appointment of more than a dozen new members to the panel and the new vaccine schedule HHS issued in January.

In a separate set of reported details attributed to Houry, CBS News said she described “pure chaos” at the health agency as Kennedy sought to transform its policies and personnel, and she pointed to June 9, 2025 removal of experts from a key vaccine advisory panel. CBS News also reported that Houry said she became concerned that political requests were driving decisions that did not require reopening prior issues, and that the standard briefing practices between CDC medical leadership and the HHS secretary were different than in prior administrations.

The Hill reported that Houry criticized Kennedy for declining to receive a briefing on an ongoing measles epidemic from the agency’s top medical official and for spreading misinformation about the measles vaccine, as well as for refusing to recognize facts that do not fit an agenda. Those assertions were attributed to Houry and presented as her description of what occurred during the period after Kennedy took over at HHS.

The episode places a former top CDC official’s account in the context of ongoing legal and administrative disputes over vaccine guidance and advisory panel membership. In March 2026, reporting said a federal judge blocked elements of Kennedy’s appointments and vaccine changes that were intended to take effect through CDC-related advisory processes and HHS-issued guidance.

For its part, the CBS and The Hill reporting did not present a new official CDC or HHS response to Houry’s claims in the summary account. The controversy centers on institutional trust in federal health guidance, the governance of vaccine recommendations, and the extent to which HHS leadership changes can alter CDC scientific processes and public communication.

If you want, I can also produce a tighter version that focuses only on the interview quotes and the court-blocked vaccine advisory changes, but the current draft keeps the sequence of personnel, panel changes, and litigation in one thread.