The US Health Secretary has incorrectly claimed the measles jab contains aborted foetus cells, while scientists warn the country could see the infection become endemic once again.<\/p>\n
“(Monarez) was not aligned with the president’s mission to Make America Healthy Again, and the secretary asked her to resign,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“She said she would, and then she said she wouldn’t, so the president fired her.”<\/p>\n
Several other senior leaders of the CDC have also resigned, including Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry and National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director Demetre Daskalakis.<\/p>\n
CDC staffers, many wearing green shirts and ribbons as a symbol of support for public health scientists, clapped, hugged and cheered them outside the gates.<\/p>\n
Dr Houry and Dr Daskalakis cited a rise in health misinformation, particularly on vaccines, attacks on science, the weaponisation of public health, and attempts to cut the agency’s budget in their resignation letters reviewed by Reuters.<\/p>\n
“I’m a doctor. I took the Hippocratic oath that said, ‘First, do no harm.’ I believe harm is going to happen, and so I can’t be a part of it,” Dr Daskalakis said in an interview.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has been making controversial changes within America’s sprawling health bureaucracy. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)<\/p>\n
‘The agency is in trouble’<\/p>\n
The leadership upheaval comes as Mr Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy, makes sweeping changes to vaccine policies since taking office this year.<\/p>\n
That included firing the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel members and replacing them with fellow anti-vaccine activists and other hand-picked advisers.<\/p>\n
Mr Kennedy on Thursday vowed to fix the CDC, but in an interview with US cable network Fox News, refused to comment specifically on Ms Monarez’s case.<\/p>\n
“The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it and we are fixing it. And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We need strong leadership that will go in there, and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions for this agency.”<\/p>\n
Trump’s firing powers challenged by Federal Reserve governor<\/p>\n
Ms Monarez’s stand-off is not the only legal showdown facing the president.<\/p>\n
On Thursday local time, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook formally sued the Trump administration in an effort to overturn the president’s attempt to fire her, launching an unprecedented legal battle that could significantly reshape the Fed’s longstanding political independence.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to block her firing and “confirm her status” as a member of the Fed’s governing board.<\/p>\n
If the courts uphold Mr Trump’s firing of Ms Cook, it would significantly increase the president’s control over one of the few remaining independent agencies in Washington.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve member Lisa Cook is suing Donald Trump, arguing he does not have the authority to fire her. (AP: Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n
Most observers expect the case to end up at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
No president has sought to fire a Fed governor in the institution’s 112-year history until Mr Trump posted a letter on media late Monday saying that Ms Cook was fired.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump said the reason for her removal were allegations that she committed mortgage fraud in 2021, before she was appointed to the board.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court has signalled that the president can’t fire Fed officials over policy differences, but he can do so “for cause,” typically meaning misconduct or neglect of duty.<\/p>\n
Ms Cook has not been charged with any crime.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was filed by Ms Cook’s lawyer Abbe David Lowell, who is also representing Ms Monarez.<\/p>\n
The suit argued that the allegations do not involve misconduct by Ms Cook while in office and haven’t been proven.<\/p>\n
Ms Cook should also have been given a chance to answer the charges, the suit says.<\/p>\n
“The unsubstantiated and unproven allegation that Governor Cook ‘potentially’ erred in filling out a mortgage form prior to her Senate confirmation \u2014 does not amount to ’cause,’ the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n
“Allowing the President to remove members of the Board over policy disagreements would also render illusory the Board’s independence,” the suit said.<\/p>\n
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