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The US Senate voted 51-47 along party lines to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee, Susan Monarez, as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tasked with leading the response to public health threats.
Monarez, a career public health official who served as interim director of the CDC until her appointment, will report to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, contradicting scientific evidence, including suggestions of a link between them and autism.
The first CDC director to seek Senate confirmation following changes to the Public Health Service Act, Monarez tried to distance herself somewhat from some of Kennedy's views during her confirmation hearing last month, while also praising his leadership on several occasions.
She told a Senate committee last month that she had seen no evidence linking vaccines and autism, and promised to prioritize vaccine availability if it is confirmed.
Monarez, the first CDC director without a medical degree since 1953, holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focused on developing technologies to diagnose, treat, and prevent infectious diseases.
She is the Trump administration's second nominee for the role. In March, the president withdrew the nomination of former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon, a Kennedy ally, just hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing.
The United States is grappling with a growing measles outbreak, with confirmed cases this month reaching the highest level since the disease was declared eliminated from the country in 2000. Monarez is expected to lead the response to the outbreak and play a critical role in containing the spread of bird flu.
Monarez will lead a scaled-down agency, with the White House seeking to cut the CDC's budget by nearly $3.6 billion, leaving it with a budget of $4 billion, and Kennedy approving a layoff plan that cut 2,400 employees, although about 700 were brought back.
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