Susan Monarez, PhD, was fired late yesterday as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after clashing with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy.
The White House fired her after Monarez refused to resign, and the action kicked off a mass resignation wave of three of the CDC's top officials: Debra Houry, MD, MPH, the CDC's chief medical officer; Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, head of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, head of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Earlier this week Jennifer Layden, MD, PhD, who led the Office of Public Health Data, also stepped down.
'Weaponizing public health'
In a letter from her lawyers, Monarez said she was being targeted because she, "Refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives.
Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.
"First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists," her lawyers said in a statement. "Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk."
Yesterday White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email, “As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. 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.”
As a Senate-confirmed appointee, Monarez must be fired directly by the president. Late last night, her lawyers said on Bluesky that she was notified by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired.
"For 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," the statement said.
Weeks-long tenure marked by clashes over vaccines
The Senate confirmed Monarez to be CDC director on July 29, after she had served as acting director since January. But within weeks of her confirmation, she began to clash with Kennedy's desire to limit the availability of COVID-19 vaccines without supporting evidence.
Sources told news outlets yesterday that Kennedy was pressuring Monarez to resign this week, but she refused, and even enlisted Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA), to help her push back on Kennedy's vaccine stance. Cassidy had been the key vote in confirming Kennedy, and he said he did so because he was promised special access to Kennedy and because Kennedy promised not to make sweeping changes to US vaccine policy.
On X, Cassidy wrote, "These high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee." The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee oversees the CDC, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, both of which are HHS agencies.
Experts say American lives at risk
Among those who resigned in the wake of Monarez's firing was Daskalakis who had led the CDC’s mpox response in 2022. In a letter explaining his decisions, he wrote, "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.
The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.
"The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people."
In her resignation letter, Houry said, "I am committed to protecting the public's health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency. This is a heartbreaking decision."
She added, "The science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations. Vaccines save lives—this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact."
Anne Schuchat, MD, the CDC's principal deputy director until her retirement in May 2021, said of the newly resigned CDC leaders, "These individuals are physician-scientist public health superstars. I think we should all be scared about the nation's health security,” she told the New York Times.
