Chaos erupted Wednesday at the nation’s top public health agency after the Trump administration decided to dismiss its director, Susan Monarrez, who had been inaugurated less than a month ago. Her lawyers said she would not resign and that she was being “targeted” because of her pro-science stance.
Monarrez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was fired Wednesday evening, according to a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which provided no explanation.
“Susan Monarrez is no longer the director of the CDC. We thank her for her dedication to the American people,” the department said in an anonymous statement posted on social media. Her lawyers responded in a statement, saying she “neither resigned nor received any notification” from the White House regarding her dismissal.
Shortly after, White House press secretary Khush Desai announced Monarrez’s dismissal, saying she was “not aligned” with the president’s agenda. “Because Susan Monarrez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intention to do so, the White House has terminated Monarrez’s employment at the CDC,” he said.
A few hours later, her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abby David Lowell, reported on X that she had received official notification of her dismissal. However, they argued that this action was legally invalid and that “only the President has the authority to remove her” as a Senate appointee.
“For this reason, we reject the notification received by Dr. Monarrez as legally incomplete, and she will remain CDC director,” they wrote. They added that the legal team had informed the White House counsel of their position.
According to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times, Monarrez, whose nomination was confirmed by the Senate last month, appears to have drawn the ire of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health, after refusing to support sweeping changes to U.S. vaccination policy.
In an earlier statement, Zaid and Lowell claimed that the department’s attempt to remove Monarrez was part of a broader strategy to dismantle America’s public health institutions.
Initially, there were independent advisory boards and professional experts. Then, senior scientists were fired. Now, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services John F. Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are intent on exploiting public health for political gain, endangering the lives of millions of Americans, his lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abby David Lowell, said in a statement. “When CDC Director Susan Monarrez refused to endorse unscientific and irresponsible recommendations and fired dedicated health experts, she chose to protect the public rather than serve a political agenda. And for that, she was targeted,” they added.
The dismissal sparked a wave of resignations within the agency, with at least three CDC leaders publicly resigning after the HHS announcement.
The most controversial resignation letter came from Dr. Dimitri Daskalakis, who resigned from his position as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, according to Inside Medicine, a newsletter specializing in the field that obtained the full data.
“I am no longer able to serve in this role due to the continued militarization of public health. You are the best team I have ever worked with, and you continue to shine despite this dark cloud hanging over the agency and our profession,” Daskalakis wrote. “Take care of yourselves and your teams, and make the right decisions for yourselves.”
Dr. Deb Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, echoed these concerns, writing: “In the interest of the nation and the world, CDC scientific research should never be subject to censorship or political interpretation.”
Daniel Jernigan, who directed the Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, also resigned from the agency.
Hours before Monarrez’s dismissal, Kennedy praised the FDA’s decision Wednesday to revoke the emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, which CDC experts say have saved 3.2 million lives in the United States.
The FDA now authorizes vaccines from these three companies only for people 65 and older, or for younger people with underlying medical conditions that put them at risk of severe disease. Even those eligible for vaccines will not be able to receive them in the United States unless the advisory committee, reconstituted by Kennedy to include COVID-19 vaccine opponents, votes in favor.
Monarriz, 50, was the agency’s 21st director and the first to be confirmed by the Senate under a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then appointed in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon. She was sworn in on July 31, less than a month ago, making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the agency’s 79-year-old history.
Meanwhile, public health experts are sounding the alarm about this chaos.
“What’s happening at the CDC should alarm every American, whether they’re MAGA, MAGA, or neither, or whether they don’t care about labels or politics. It’s unclear whether the CDC director, whose nomination was confirmed a few weeks ago, has been fired. This is absolutely outrageous,” tweeted Dr. Craig Spencer, an emergency physician and professor at the Brown University School of Public Health. “And tonight, leading professionals resigned, sounding the alarm loud and clear,” he added. “This is absolute chaos that’s leaving the country unprepared.”
“Robert Kennedy Jr. is increasingly becoming a liability for the White House,” noted Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University.