On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Susan Monarez’s departure as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) director in a brief social media post on X that said: “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.”
However, The New York Times reported that Monarez “is refusing to leave her post, despite demands from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that she quit or be fired, according to her lawyers and an administration official familiar with the events.”
“The clash between Mr. Kennedy and Susan Monarez…burst into public view on Wednesday as four other high-ranking C.D.C. officials quit en masse, apparently in frustration over vaccine policy and Mr. Kennedy’s leadership,” The New York Times reporters wrote.
According to The New York Times, Abbe David Lowell and Mark S. Zaid, high-profile lawyers, stated Dr. Monarez “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.”
Mike Stobbe with AP News reported that resignations this week of at least four top CDC officials included Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s deputy director; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, head of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr. Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
In his resignation letter posted on X, Daskalakis stated, “After much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough.” Furthermore, he noted, “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."
Monarez was confirmed by the Senate on July 29 to lead the agency permanently after having been the acting director. “At her confirmation hearing, Monarez said she values vaccines and rigorous scientific evidence, but she largely dodged questions about her dealings with Kennedy, an antivaccine activist who has sought to dismantle some of the agency’s previous protocols and decisions,” AP News reported previously.
The Washington Post first reported Monarez was ousted, quoting her lawyers, “When 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 reason, she has been targeted.” The Washington Post reporters wrote that officials said, “Soon after their statement, the White House formally fired Monarez.”
