Susan Monarez, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is being ousted from her role less than a month after the Senate confirmed her to lead the public health agency, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.
It’s not clear why Monarez was removed from the job. She was confirmed by the Senate in a party-line vote in late July, after previously serving as the agency’s acting head starting in January.
The Department of Health and Human Services later confirmed on X that Monarez no longer leads the CDC. The post thanked her “for her dedicated service for the American people,” and said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “has full confidence in his team” at the CDC.
The news was first reported by The Washington Post.
CBS News has reached out to the CDC for comment.
Daniel Jernigan, who led the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, also resigned from the agency. In a resignation email obtained by CBS News, Jernigan cited “the current context in the Department.”
The sudden departure of the CDC’s leader comes at a tumultuous time for the public health agency. Staff are still reeling from an early August shooting outside the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters by a gunman who police said was upset about COVID-19 vaccines.Â
Kennedy — a longtime vaccine skeptic — also fired every member of an independent CDC panel tasked with making vaccine recommendations, and the agency has faced hundreds of layoffs this year.
President Trump nominated Monarez to lead the CDC in late March, calling her a “dedicated public servant” who could repair what he called a loss of public confidence in the CDC “due to political bias and disastrous mismanagement.”
She was nominated to lead the agency after Mr. Trump pulled his initial pick for the job, former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon, a physician who was controversial in part due to his past skepticism of vaccines. In private meetings with Weldon, some Republican senators and their staffers grew concerned that he seemed unfamiliar with the CDC, CBS News reported at the time.
Monarez holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology, though unlike most prior CDC directors, she is not a medical doctor. She previously served as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a federal agency that backs advanced medical research. She also worked in the Obama-era White House’s science and technology office and the Department of Homeland Security during Mr. Trump’s first term.
During a Senate confirmation hearing, Monarez said she has “not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism” — refuting a discredited theory raised by Kennedy.
“Vaccines absolutely save lives, and if I’m confirmed as CDC director, I commit to making sure we continue to prioritize vaccine availability,” Monarez told lawmakers.
This is a breaking story; it will be updated.
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