Inside the Pharma Script: What Really Happened at Today's Senate Hearing on the CDC
How Pharma’s Lobbyists, Ex-CDC Chiefs, and Political Operatives Tried to Script Today’s Hearing Against RFK Jr.
Quick Summary
The hearing was pre-scripted: A leaked April BIO memo flagged Sen. Bill Cassidy as a “strategic ally” to lead pressure against RFK Jr. Months later, he chaired this one-sided event.
Monarez’s testimony was political, not scientific: She refused to disclose her lawyers, both high-profile anti-Trump operatives, while presenting herself as a victim of Kennedy’s reforms.
Industry influence cloaked as “expert opinion”: Nine ex-CDC directors attacked Kennedy in the NYT without disclosing their conflicts of interest with Pharma.
A counter-narrative emerged: Senator Rand Paul dismantled the scientific basis for pushing Covid shots on children, while RFK Jr.’s own WSJ op-ed outlined a credible reform plan focused on transparency and restoring trust.
Grassroots power surged: Over 80,000 MAHA-aligned constituents emailed Congress in less than 24 hours opposing this hearing’s political theater — an unprecedented display of public support.
A Show Trial Masquerading as Oversight
On Wednesday I sat directly behind former CDC Director Susan Monarez as she testified before the Senate HELP Committee. The hearing, chaired by Senator Bill Cassidy, was billed as “Restoring Trust Through Radical Transparency.” In practice, it was a stage-managed performance aimed squarely at discrediting Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
What was so obviously wrong about it all was the absence of the man at the center of the controversy. RFK Jr. wasn’t invited to testify and respond to their allegations. Instead, only Monarez and her former deputy Dr. Deb Houry were called. Their testimony was amplified by senators and reporters already primed by weeks of media drumbeats calling for Kennedy’s resignation.
From where I sat, the spectacle was hard to miss. Two lawyers perched behind Monarez whispered in her ear and passed notes as she spoke. When pressed to identify them, she declined. Only later did Senator Jim Banks reveal that one was Mark Zaid, a well-known anti-Trump attorney. This refusal to disclose counsel — in a hearing about transparency — said everything.
The BIO Memo Comes to Life
Back in April, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) held a closed-door meeting that later leaked. Its minutes described a $2 million campaign to neutralize Kennedy and specifically named Senator Cassidy as a “strategic ally.” You can learn all the details here.
Watching Cassidy gavel in this week’s hearing felt like that memo coming to life. He played the role exactly as anticipated: defending the vaccine schedule, invoking his medical experience, and framing Kennedy’s reforms as dangerous. This wasn’t organic oversight — it was a planned convergence of industry lobbying and congressional theater.
What Monarez Didn’t Say
Monarez painted herself as a defender of science, fired for refusing to “pre-approve” Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes. What she omitted: her record of blocking independent review of vaccine harms, and her resistance to Kennedy’s directive that CDC acknowledge safety signals, including reports of child deaths potentially linked to Covid shots.
HHS had already accused her of insubordination — from limiting badge access for Trump appointees to making policy decisions without authorization. None of this made it into her testimony. Instead, she leaned on her attorneys’ guidance and a sympathetic media narrative to recast herself as a whistleblower and a victim.
Pharma’s Old Guard Rallies
The hearing didn’t stand alone. Days earlier, nine former CDC directors published a New York Times op-ed warning that Kennedy was “endangering every American’s health.” Left unsaid: their conflicts of interest.
Julie Gerberding, former CDC head, went on to lead Merck’s vaccine division.
Robert Redfield co-founded a biotech firm before his CDC role.
Brenda Fitzgerald resigned after ethics violations tied to financial conflicts.
The op-ed presented these figures as impartial guardians of science. In reality, they exemplify the revolving door between the CDC and the very industry capture and Kennedy is trying to reform.
Rand Paul Breaks the Script
Amid the scripted attacks, one moment cut through. Senator Rand Paul used his questioning time to ask Monarez simple, pointed questions about the Covid vaccine for children:
Does it prevent transmission?
Does it reduce hospitalization?
Does it reduce deaths?
Each time, Monarez hedged: “It can.” Paul responded with data — and plain language. Transmission reductions were negligible with Omicron. Hospitalizations and deaths in children were already so rare that benefits couldn’t be shown. The vaccines had been authorized based on antibody production, not clinical outcomes.
Paul’s point was clear: the scientific justification for pediatric Covid vaccination just doesn’t exist when you weigh the known risks with the purported but unsubstantiated benefits. His testimony revealed the deeper irony — the supposed champions of science had promoted policies unsupported by evidence.
Monarez on the Defensive: A Question of Trust
A blistering moment came when Senator Markwayne Mullin stepped up and asked Monarez directly: Who fired you? After she said she believed it was the President, the line of questioning hurtled to her legal counsel: When did you first retain attorneys? When did you first speak to them?
Monarez repeatedly hedged, saying she “retained counsel on or before the day she was fired,” but couldn’t recall exact times or days. Mullin accused her of having an “honesty issue,” emphasizing that it should be possible to remember such details when the events are so recent.
Mullin also pressed her about a recorded meeting in which, she claimed, the Secretary told her he could not trust her. She said she responded that if that were the case, he could fire her. Mullin alleged there was a recording of that conversation — a claim that Cassidy later said Mullin recanted, saying he was mistaken.
That exchange mattered deeply. For a witness elevated as an exemplar of scientific integrity, acknowledging gaps in her own recollection — especially about attorneys and timing — opened her up to serious scrutiny. It’s precisely the kind of moment that sends a ripple through the hearing room, changing the tone.
Kennedy’s Counterpoint
Contrast Wednesday’s performance with Kennedy’s own words in the Wall Street Journal. In his op-ed, he pledged to:
Eliminate conflicts of interest, starting with a full shake-up of the vaccine advisory committee.
Support state and local health departments, decentralizing authority.
Restore transparency, including honest acknowledgment of vaccine risks when they arise.
Refocus the CDC on infectious disease rather than sprawling into politics and chronic conditions. (note: I disagree with narrowing the CDC’s mission to infectious disease surveillance. That framework has historically been used as cover for invasive monitoring of citizens, and it rests on an outdated germ theory model. With the discovery of the microbiome and the emerging xenogen explanation, we know health and disease cannot be reduced to a simple pathogen-centered paradigm. Learn more here)
This is not “anti-science.” It is an agenda for rebuilding trust in an agency that squandered it during Covid. And this is exactly what those who voted for the Trump-RFK Jr. unity ticket asked for.
The Unspoken Story: Grassroots Power
The most encouraging fact about this week’s hearing wasn’t discussed on camera, but it was felt in the room: Stand for Health Freedom constituents sent more than 80,000 emails to Congress within 24 hours supporting RFK Jr. and rejecting this political theater.
This is unprecedented. By comparison, in the run-up to Kennedy’s confirmation earlier this year, 150,000 emails were sent over a two-week period — a massive show of support at the time. What happened this week dwarfed it in speed and intensity. Senators (and especially staffers) knew those numbers. And it changed the atmosphere. I don’t the Hill has ever seen a movement this organic, this powerful, nor this mobilized. And yet, it is relatively decentralized. Which also makes it impossible to stop.
Despite the scripted nature of the proceedings, lawmakers couldn’t ignore the reality that Kennedy and the broader Make America Healthy Again movement enjoy extraordinary, growing popular support. This is not fringe. It is the will of the people — and it is getting louder.
Other grassroots allies who supported the campaign, adding tens of thousands of additional emails, calls, and messages online, were the following:
….And far too many organizations, individuals, and allies to name.
Why It Matters
Wednesday’s hearing wasn’t about transparency. It was about power. A Senate committee, armed with industry talking points and flanked by conflicted experts, tried to frame Kennedy as reckless and unfit.
Yet the cracks showed. Monarez’s evasions, the ex-CDC directors’ undisclosed ties, and Rand Paul’s exposure of weak science all undermined the narrative. And Kennedy’s reforms, laid out in print for all to see, continue to resonate with a public weary of politicized health policy.
Go deeper and learn what was really behind today’s hearing by reading the article below.
THE COUP: How Big Pharma's $2 Million War Chest Bought This Wednesday's Senate Hearing
🚨 Action Alert 🚨 The Senate HELP Committee is setting the stage against RFK Jr. this Wednesday. This isn’t about oversight—it’s about silencing dissent and protecting entrenched interests.
Closing Thoughts
As someone present in that room, I can say plainly: this was less an inquiry than a show trial. It followed the script Big Pharma drafted months ago. And the real purpose was to provide feed stock for the pre-orchestrated maelstrom of mainstream media reporting which started almost as soon as the hearing began, with the Guardian leading the charge with this piece, followed by dozens within the hours following. But the truth has a way of surfacing — in leaked memos, in op-eds that disclose more by what they omit, and in senators willing to ask uncomfortable questions.
The stakes go beyond one man’s job. If unelected interests can manufacture consensus to unseat a Senate-confirmed Cabinet official, then democratic accountability itself is at risk.
Radical transparency is indeed needed — but not the version staged this week. What America needs is exactly what Kennedy has promised: open evidence, elimination of conflicts, and an end to regulatory capture.
That’s the path to restoring trust. And no amount of theater can obscure it for long.
Pictured: Sayer Ji, Co-Founder & Chairman of the Global Wellness Forum, and Dr. Tia Kansara, International Partnership Council Member, attending today’s HELP Committee hearing in Washington, D.C.
Thanks for being present. It's so difficult watching these hearings!!
It is simply disgusting. It looks like a clown show, like a battle in between a group who wants a reform and one who does not want to leave the honey pot what fills their pockets. What a disgrace!