WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dr. Debra Houry, a former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated in an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that she found the current administration's actions regarding public health different from previous experiences. Dr. Houry resigned from the CDC last summer along with three other top officials.

Dr. Houry supplied emails to the Senate Health Committee, which were released in late June. She stated that she did not brief the secretary. "I also didn't brief the secretary, which was very different than prior administrations," Dr. Houry said. "Science doesn't change based on who is in office, and so when these things were happening, I knew this was different than before."

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) on June 9, 2025. Kennedy circumvented the usual process for naming new ACIP members. Dr. Houry stated in an email that it was not clear whether 10 prospective ACIP members were ready, as they needed to complete the FACA process.

The reconstituted ACIP met three times, with its most recent meeting occurring in December. The new members voted to remove thimerosal from all flu vaccines and to end the universal birth dose recommendation for the Hepatitis B vaccine. The Department of Health and Human Services later reduced the number of shots recommended in the childhood vaccine schedule. Kennedy argued that the ACIP he dissolved had become "little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."

A federal judge halted the appointments of most new ACIP members in March. The judge also halted all votes taken by the new ACIP members and changes to the childhood vaccine schedule in March. The American Academy of Pediatrics filed a lawsuit concerning the upheaval of the ACIP, and other health organizations also filed similar lawsuits.

The CDC removed hundreds of webpages within the first weeks of President Trump's second term. The Office of Personnel Management issued a directive on January 29, giving federal departments and agencies 11 days to remove all mentions of gender from their websites. "'Gender' was in many of our data sets. Gender of animals, we had transgender guidance around Mpox, all of that we were told to take down," Dr. Houry said. Acting CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez later sent an email at 10:30 p.m. requesting that certain websites related to the advisory committee be immediately restored.