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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n Dr. Susan Monarez, who was sworn in as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 31, has been removed from the position, the White House said Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n Several high-level veteran agency officials resigned after word spread about her departure, leaving the CDC leaderless at a perilous time. HHS has not named an acting director to lead the CDC.\n <\/p>\n \n Morale, which was already low after deep staff cuts this spring, plummeted after a gunman opened fire on the CDC\u2019s main campus in Atlanta on August 8, pocking the buildings with hundreds of bullet holes and killing DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose. Shortly afterward, a further 600 employees got official termination notices.\n <\/p>\n \n The exiting agency leaders described censorship, communication failures and the weaponization of public health by the US Department of Health and Human Services in resignation letters, social media posts and statements from attorneys.\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez\u2019s ouster, first reported by The Washington Post, burst into public view over several tumultuous hours Wednesday. Just weeks into her tenure as director, she had clashed with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy over vaccine policy and her refusal to fire several veteran CDC leaders, according to people familiar with the situation.\n <\/p>\n \n The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a post<\/a> on X, \u201cSusan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. [HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In a statement<\/a>, Monarez\u2019s attorneys disputed the government\u2019s version of events and said, \u201cAs a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSusan Monarez is not aligned with the President\u2019s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,\u201d White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. \u201cSince 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez\u2019s attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said they rejected the notification their client had received.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur client was notified tonight by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired. As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her,\u201d Zaid and Lowell said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cFor this reason, we reject notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez\u2019s ouster followed days of internal pressure led by Kennedy\u2019s deputy chief of staff and close confidante, Stefanie Spear, according to two people familiar with the situation. It also came soon after Kennedy summoned Monarez to Washington and demanded that she fire Dr. Debra Houry, the agency\u2019s chief medical officer and deputy director of programs and science; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr. Dan Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, according to two people familiar with the matter.\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez refused, angering Kennedy and triggering his move to remove her.\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez also clashed with Kennedy and his team over vaccine policies, including an impending announcement that could draw links between immunizations and autism, according to a person familiar with the situation.\n <\/p>\n \n Kennedy suggested in a Tuesday meeting of President Donald Trump\u2019s Cabinet that HHS would reveal research in September showing that \u201ccertain interventions now are clearly, almost certainly, causing autism.\u201d Trump responded that \u201cthere has to be something artificially causing this, meaning, a drug or something.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The CDC is readying to announce a new slate of appointees to its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in the coming weeks, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Kennedy dissolved the panel of independent vaccine advisers in June and days later named eight new members, many of whom have cast doubt on the safety of vaccines and public policy around vaccination. One member later dropped out during the required financial review.\n <\/p>\n \n Attorneys Zaid and Lowell said in their statement that \u201cSecretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThis is not about one official. It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n US Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called for Kennedy\u2019s own ouster on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSusan Monarez\u2019s willingness to stand up for science and protect the integrity of the CDC is commendable and deeply important \u2013 however, it only further underscores the reality at HHS: Director Monarez is not the problem, RFK Jr. is. If there are any adults left in the White House, it\u2019s well past time they face reality and fire RFK Jr.,\u201d she said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cHe is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation \u2013 leaving us unprepared for the next deadly pandemic and snuffing out potential cures while he\u2019s at it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Shortly after Monarez\u2019s departure was confirmed Wednesday, three other top CDC officials also announced that they were leaving. Dr. Debra Houry, the agency\u2019s chief medical officer and deputy director of programs and science; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr. Dan Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, were agency veterans whom staffers said were well-liked and trusted.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFor the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses and interpretations,\u201d Houry wrote in a resignation email to staff that was shared with CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cVaccines save lives \u2013 this is an indisputable, well-established scientific fact,\u201d she said. \u201cInformed consent and shared decision-making must focus not only on the risks, but also on the true lifesaving benefits that vaccines provide to individuals and communities.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n While it is important to question and analyze research, \u201cthis must be done by experts with the right skills and experience, without bias, and considering the full weight of scientific evidence,\u201d she wrote.\n <\/p>\n \n Houry then said that misinformation has already cost lives, citing the record high number of measles cases in the US this year.\n <\/p>\n \n Daskalakis shared his resignation email to Houry in a post<\/a> on X.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Dr. Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, also left the CDC on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the situation who asked not to be named because they weren\u2019t authorized to share the information.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur agency is crumbling,\u201d said a source within the CDC who is not allowed to speak to the news media and did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. \u201cAll of our top people who kept us protected \u2026 from the new administration. From twisting science for their agenda. Science is data and facts. We\u2019re simple people that way \u2026 we trust numbers and facts.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe bullet holes aren\u2019t even repaired on our buildings.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez was President Donald Trump\u2019s second pick to lead the CDC; the nomination<\/a> of Dr. Dave Weldon was withdrawn in March after White House officials privately voiced concerns about his comments expressing skepticism about vaccines.\n <\/p>\n \n She was the first CDC director to be confirmed by the Senate, and her tenure was the shortest of any<\/a> in the agency\u2019s history.\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez was principal deputy director and acting director at the CDC from January to March. She has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology but is not a medical doctor, making her the first CDC director since the 1950s<\/a> not to have a clinical background.\n <\/p>\n \n Monarez\u2019s tenure in government spans Republican and Democratic administrations. Before coming to the CDC, she was deputy director for the Advance Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, and was founding director of the Center for Innovation at the Health Resources and Services Administration. She held other leadership positions at the Department of Homeland Security and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.\n <\/p>\n
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