Former CDC chief medical officer says turmoil followed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s control efforts, provided emails to Senate panel

Dr. Debra Houry, a former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CBS News that the federal health agency faced what she described as “pure chaos” after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to alter CDC policies and personnel. Houry, who resigned from the CDC last year along with three other top officials, said she provided emails to the Senate Health Committee and spoke publicly in the first interview since the emails were released in late June.

Houry described a break from what she said had been standard practice in prior administrations, including what she said was a failure to brief the HHS secretary on current health conditions. She said she “didn’t brief the secretary,” describing it as “very different than prior administrations,” and said she became concerned that “data, science and facts would not be enough” after an increase in political requests that she said focused on events from decades earlier.

A key point Houry cited was a June 9, 2025 decision involving a vaccine advisory panel. She said experts were removed from a key vaccine advisory panel, and she linked that change to broader concerns about the agency’s scientific integrity. She also said the secretary refused to receive a briefing from the CDC’s top medical official regarding an ongoing measles epidemic, and she said the refusal was consistent with misinformation she attributed to the secretary about the measles vaccine.

Houry’s remarks also addressed the role and background of advisers to Kennedy. She told CBS News that she believed many individuals advising him had “no medical background,” and, she said, “for many of them, no science background,” according to her account. She connected those concerns to her view that decisions affecting public health could shift away from evidence-based processes.

Houry said she became concerned when requests arrived from political appointees to revisit matters she described as having occurred 30 years earlier, which she said did not require being “re-litigated at a taxpayer expense.” She said her concerns were heightened by what she characterized as a change in how the CDC handled information and by what she said was repeated disregard for facts that did not align with an agenda.

The CBS News report framed Houry’s comments as part of a broader dispute over the management of federal health agencies and vaccine-related decision-making, centered on her characterization of changes she experienced after Kennedy assumed the HHS role. The report also described the emails Houry provided to the Senate Health Committee as the basis for her public statements.

As of the publication of the CBS News report, Houry’s claims were presented as her account, and the material referenced was linked to the emails she said she shared with the Senate Health Committee. The next step for verification would be review of the committee’s released documents, any related testimony, and any CDC or HHS responses addressing the specific June 9, 2025 panel actions and the briefings described by Houry.