White House Fires Cdc Director Monarez After She Refuses To Resign 4

The White House on Wednesday said it had fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez after she refused to resign. Four other top CDC officials announced they were quitting the embattled health agency. The leadership crisis at CDC erupted the same day the Food and Drug Administration announced new limits on who can get the latest approved round of Covid vaccines in the U.S. "Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again," White House Spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to NBC News. "Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing [Health and Human Services Department] leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC." The statement comes hours after attorney Mark Zaid said he was representing Monarez and that she had not actually been fired yet or stepped down, adding that she would not resign.

"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," Zaid said in a statement. "For that, she has been targeted." The White House announced late Wednesday that it had fired Susan Monarez as the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "As her attorney's statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again," White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico. "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." The confirmation capped hours of uncertainty over Monarez's position and whether she had indeed been removed as CDC director.

The Department of Health and Human Services posted on social media earlier Wednesday that Monarez was "no longer" head of the public health agency, but her lawyers said their client was "targeted" for "protecting... They added that she had not resigned but was not told she had been fired at the time of the HHS' social media announcement. Monarez's removal as one of the nation's top public health officials happens against the backdrop of broader changes at the Department of Health and Human Services, where Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all the members of an influential vaccine advisory panel and cut off funding for critical mRNA vaccines. The White House said late Wednesday that it had fired Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), after less than one month in the job.

Monarez, 50, isn’t “aligned with” U.S. President Donald Trump’s agenda of “Making America Healthy Again” and refused to resign, so the White House terminated her position with the CDC, spokesperson Kush Desai said on Wednesday night. The infectious disease researcher was sworn in on July 31 by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Her lawyers argue that her dismissal was retaliation for standing up for science. “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,” her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. Lawyers for the fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Susan Monarez, say she was targeted for standing up for science and are challenging the legality of her termination. (AP Video: Nathan Ellgren) Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arrives to testify before the Senate HELP Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

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 White House says CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired because she was not aligned with President Trump's mission to make America healthy again. What does the exodus mean for the agency? And now to a portrait of an agency in apparent freefall.

I would tell you who's in charge today at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta if we knew. To recap, Susan Monarez had just been confirmed as director at the end of July. Yesterday on X, the Department of Health and Human Services posted that she is no longer in charge. Monarez said, not so fast, that she would not resign, that only the president has the power to fire her, which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says he has done. And then late this afternoon, we learned that Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill will be named interim director of the CDC. That's according to an administration official not authorized to discuss the decision.

Well earlier today, I spoke with someone who knows well the challenges of running the CDC - Dr. Tom Frieden. He was director there during the Obama administration. And I asked him is it clear to him who's in charge? TOM FRIEDEN: No, it is not. This is unprecedented.

There has, in the 80-year history of the CDC, never been a director fired and never had a situation like this where you have essentially a purge, where much of the top leadership leaves... The CDC works 24/7 to protect Americans from threats. And when the top leaders who have been there through Democratic and Republican administrations for decades, leave, we are all less safe. KELLY: You've just pointed out that it is not just Susan Monarez as director who appears to have exited the CDC in the last 24 hours. We know of four other senior leaders who have left, including the CDC's chief medical officer, including the director of the Center on Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. What are you hearing from Atlanta headquarters today?

The White House said late Wednesday it had fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Susan Monarez, after she refused to resign, saying her views were “not aligned with the President’s agenda... In a statement late Wednesday, her lawyers accused HHS and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of putting millions of lives at risk by firing career experts and seasoned scientists, while weaponizing public health. They wrote, “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.”

Meanwhile, three senior CDC officials resigned in protest Wednesday: Dr. Debra Houry, deputy director for program and science and chief medical officer at CDC; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. In a resignation email, Dr. Houry wrote, “For the good of the nation and the world, 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.” This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. WASHINGTON — America’s public health system is headed to a “very dangerous place” with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team of anti-vaccine advisors in charge, fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Susan Monarez warned senators on Wednesday.

Describing extraordinary turmoil inside the nation’s health agencies, Monarez and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry described exchanges in which Kennedy or political advisors rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Monarez, who was fired after just 29 days on the job following disagreements with Kennedy, told senators deadly diseases like polio and whooping cough, long contained, are poised to make a comeback in the... “I believe preventable diseases will return, and I believe we will have our children harmed by things they don’t need to be harmed by,” Monarez said before the Senate health committee.

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