President Donald Trump fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday following a dramatic clash between her and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced that Susan Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate for the post in late July, was “no longer” director of the CDC, and soon after, outlets reported the ousting of four other top officials.
Late Wednesday night, Monarez’s attorneys disputed the account, saying that she “has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”
Less than an hour later, however, White House spokesman Kush Desai confirmed that Monarez had been terminated.
“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” Desai told the Washington Examiner. “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.”
Monarez, who served as the interim director for the CDC before being nominated by Trump to run the agency, has a long history of government service under Republican and Democratic administrations.
Before being tapped to lead the CDC, Monarez served at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health under the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as in biomedical research capacities for the Department of Homeland Security.
During her confirmation process, Monarez secured votes from all Republicans in the Senate despite reservations from some on the Right that her history in the public health establishment would conflict with the Make America Healthy Again agenda of reforming institutions and rooting out conflicts of interest.
Monarez was not Trump’s first pick for CDC director. He originally nominated former Republican congressman Dr. Dave Weldon, who was widely criticized for promoting the theory that vaccines cause autism. News broke about Weldon’s being dropped from the prospective Cabinet post within hours of his scheduled confirmation hearing before the Senate health committee on March 13.
Monarez was the first CDC director to undergo the Senate confirmation process following rule changes passed by Congress after the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing of a confirmation hearing for her eventual replacement remains unclear.
Prior to Monarez’s installation at CDC, Kennedy had taken an active role in overseeing vaccine policy, which is typically managed through the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration.
In June, before Monarez’s confirmation hearing, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ostensibly due to financial conflicts of interest between board members and the pharmaceutical industry. Within days, Kennedy replaced the members with seven outsiders more aligned with his skepticism toward vaccines.
ACIP working groups are currently evaluating the “cumulative effects” of vaccine ingredients in the childhood vaccine schedule and the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. ACIP is scheduled to meet again next month.
The New York Times, citing sources close to the matter, reported Wednesday evening that Monarez objected to changes on the ACIP committee.
On Aug. 8, roughly a week after Monarez was sworn into the position, the CDC headquarters in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman who claimed the COVID-19 vaccine made him depressed and suicidal. As of Wednesday afternoon, Monarez’s most recent post on X is of her attending the memorial service on Aug. 22 for Officer David Rose, who was killed on duty during the incident.
On Aug. 12, Monarez sent a note to the CDC’s more than 10,000 employees saying that the “dangers of misinformation and its promulgation has now led to deadly consequences.”
Multiple outlets have reported that at least four other high-ranking officials at the CDC have resigned due to the perceived politicization of public health, particularly vaccine policy, under Kennedy’s HHS.
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Those who have resigned include Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner regarding the resignations.
