The former director of the CDC testified Wednesday in front of a Senate committee that Kennedy fired her because she refused go against science on vaccines.

Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez speaks during a Senate Committee on Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez speaks during a Senate Committee on Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez speaks during a Senate Committee on Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI Chairman of the Senate Committee on Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a hearing with Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J. (L-R), and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Md., speak before a hearing with Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez and Former Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Debra Houry at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI A spectator wearing a "MAHA" -- or "Make America Healthy Again" -- hat attends a Senate Committee on Health, Eduction, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesdays. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Al., arrives before a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI UPI

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Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez testified Wednesday in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired her because she refused to allow all decisions to be approved by political staff.

Monarez offered new details about her time at the CDC. She said Kennedy told her that all CDC policy and personnel decisions had to get approval from the political staff, which is not the way the CDC has operated in the past. She also said that she learned from news reports about Kennedy's firing of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a team of outside experts who advise the agency on vaccinations.

Monarez was fired last month, 29 days into her new job as CDC director, amid clashes with Kennedy over vaccine policies. Dr. Debra Houry, who stepped down from her role as the CDC's chief medical officer in protest after Monarez's firing, also testified in the hearing.

On Sept. 4, senators grilled Kennedy about the dismissal. He told the committee that Monarez lied about aspects of her dismissal.

She testified Wednesday that she had a heated meeting with Kennedy last month. During that meeting, Kennedy said things that were "particularly hurtful and disparaging."

She said Kennedy told her that the CDC was "the most corrupt federal agency in the world" and that its staff were "horrible people."

"He said that CDC employees were killing children, and they don't care," Monarez said. "He said that CDC employees were bought by the pharmaceutical industry. He said the CDC forced people to wear masks and social distance like a dictatorship."

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She said the thing he said that hurt the most was that "during the COVID-19 outbreak, CDC told hospitals to turn away sick COVID patients until they had blue lips before allowing them to get treatment."

"I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity," Monarez told the committee. "I had refused to commit to approving vaccine recommendations without evidence, fire career officials without cause, or resign."

Monarez then said that on Aug. 25, Kennedy demanded "two things of me that were inconsistent with my oath of office and the ethics required of a public official," she said. "He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy, without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign."

She said she could have stayed silent and gone along with Kennedy's demands.

"What the public would have seen were scientists dismissed without cause and vaccine protections quietly eroded -- all under the authority of a Senate-confirmed director with 'unimpeachable credentials.' I could have kept the office, the title, but I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced: my integrity."