Friday, August 29, 2025 - The Trump administration has confirmed that the sack of Susan Monarez, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), following a standoff with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over sweeping changes to U.S. vaccine policy.
Monarez, a health scientist and longtime civil servant, had
led the CDC for less than a month before the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) announced on X that she “is no longer director.” Her lawyers,
however, said she refused to step down because she had neither resigned nor
received formal notification from the White House.
The White House later issued confirmation. “As her
attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with
the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” spokesman Kush Desai
said in a statement. “Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing
HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez
from her position with the CDC.”
Monarez’s lawyers disputed the move. “She was notified
tonight by a White House staffer in the personnel office that she was fired,”
they said. “As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the
president himself can fire her. For this reason, we reject the notification Dr.
Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director.”
They also accused Kennedy of “weaponizing public health for political gain and
putting millions of American lives at risk.”
The Washington Post reported Kennedy pressured Monarez to
resign after she refused to endorse his vaccination policy changes. The dispute
triggered a wave of resignations, with five senior CDC officials stepping down
in protest.
“Many felt forced to walk away from the jobs they loved
because politics left them no choice,” the AFGE Local 2883 union, which
represents more than 2,000 CDC employees, said in a statement. “Vaccines save
lives.”
“Enough is enough,” wrote Demetre Daskalakis, director of
the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in his
resignation post on X. “I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC
as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific
reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”
Chief medical officer Debra Houry and Daniel Jernigan,
director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases,
were also among those who resigned, according to U.S. media citing staff
communications.
Since taking office, Kennedy has pushed through
controversial reforms to U.S. vaccine policy, including dismissing immunization
experts, restricting access to Covid-19 shots, and cutting funding for new
vaccine development. These moves have drawn sharp criticism from the scientific
community.
Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in by
Kennedy on July 31, leaves amid a period of turmoil at the Atlanta-based CDC.
Earlier this month, the agency was the target of an armed attack by a man who
reportedly blamed the Covid vaccine for an illness.
In the wake of the latest resignations, hundreds of current
and former CDC employees signed an open letter accusing Kennedy of spreading
misinformation and undermining public health. “Public health is under attack,”
the letter read.
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