CDC director Susan Monarez is fired and other agency leaders resign
[August 28, 2025]
By MIKE STOBBE
NEW YORK (AP) — The director of the nation's top public health agency
has been fired after less than one month in the job, and several top
agency leaders have resigned.
Susan Monarez isn't “aligned with” President Donald Trump's agenda and
refused to resign, so the White House terminated her, spokesman Kush
Desai said Wednesday night.
Her lawyers said she was targeted for standing up for science.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had announced her
departure in a brief social media post late Wednesday afternoon. Her
lawyers responded with a statement saying Monarez had neither resigned
nor been told she was fired.
“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, she has
been targeted,” attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell wrote in a
statement.
“This 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. The attack on Dr. Monarez is a
warning to every American: our evidence-based systems are being
undermined from within,” they said.

Her departure coincided with the resignations this week of at least four
top CDC officials. The list includes 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 an email seen by The Associated Press, Houry lamented the crippling
effects on the agency from planned budget cuts, reorganization and
firings.
“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,”
she wrote.
She also noted the rise of misinformation about vaccines during the
current Trump administration, and alluded to new limits on CDC
communications.
“For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should
never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations,”
she wrote.
Daskalakis worked closely with the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices. Kennedy remade the committee by firing everyone and replacing
them with a group that included several vaccine skeptics — one of whom
was put in charge of a COVID-19 vaccines workgroup.
In his resignation letter, Daskalakis lamented that the changes put
“people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of
recommending vaccine policy.” He described Monarez as “hamstrung and
sidelined by an authoritarian leader.” He added: “Their desire to please
a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable
children and adults.”
He also 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.”
HHS officials did not immediately respond to questions about the
resignations.
Some public health experts decried the loss of so many of CDC's
scientific leaders.

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 “The CDC is being decapitated. This
is an absolute disaster for public health,” said Public Citizen’s
Dr. Robert Steinbrook.
Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease
researcher, said the departures were “a serious loss for America."
“The loss of experienced, world-class infectious
disease experts at CDC is directly related to the failed leadership
of extremists currently in charge of the Department of Health and
Human Services," he said. “They make our country less safe and less
prepared for public health emergencies.”
Monarez, 50, was the agency's 21st director and the first to pass
through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named
acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee 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 history of the 79-year-old
agency.
Her short time at CDC was tumultuous. On Aug. 8, at the end of her
first full week on the job, a Georgia man opened fire from a spot at
a pharmacy across the street from CDC’s main entrance. The
30-year-old man blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed
and suicidal. He killed a police officer and fired more than 180
shots into CDC buildings before killing himself.
No one at CDC was injured, but it shell-shocked a staff that already
had low morale from other recent changes.
Monarez had scheduled an “all hands meeting” meeting for the CDC
staff — seen as an important step in addressing concerns among staff
since the shooting — for Monday this week. But HHS officials meddled
with that, too, canceling it and calling Monarez to Washington,
D.C., said a CDC official who was not authorized to talk about it
and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The Atlanta-based federal agency was initially founded to prevent
the spread of malaria in the U.S. Its mission was later expanded,
and it gradually became a global leader on infectious and chronic
diseases and a go-to source of health information.

This year it’s been hit by widespread staff cuts, resignations of
key officials and heated controversy over long-standing CDC vaccine
policies upended by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During her Senate confirmation process, Monarez told senators that
she values vaccines, public health interventions and rigorous
scientific evidence. But she largely dodged questions about whether
those positions put her at odds with Kennedy, a longtime vaccine
skeptic who has criticized and sought to dismantle some of the
agency’s previous protocols and decisions.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, praised Monarez for
standing up to Kennedy and called for him to be fired.
“We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other
critical health agencies to the ground,” she said in a statement
Wednesday night.
The Washington Post first reported Monarez was ousted.
___
AP reporter Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.
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