Trump appointed CDC Director Susan Monarez Removed From Post, White House Says; Agency in complete disarray as others resign as well.
CDC Director Susan Monarez Removed From Post, White House Says
Story by Alyssa Lukpat, Josh Dawsey, Jennifer Calfas
• 10h •
4 min read
Susan Monarez has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology.© J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The White House said it fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, and several top CDC officials resigned, throwing the agency’s leadership into turmoil.
Susan Monarez, the CDC director, has been removed from her job, the White House said Wednesday evening. “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,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai.
Monarez, who led the agency for less than a month, clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and members of his staff, according to a senior Trump administration official. President Trump had nominated her to lead the CDC in March after dropping his first pick. Previously the agency’s acting director, Monarez was the first CDC head without a medical degree in more than 70 years.
Lawyers for Monarez said that she was notified Wednesday night by a White House staffer in the personnel office that she was fired. Her lawyers said that only the president himself can fire her and for that reason, they reject the notification she received as “legally deficient.”
In an earlier statement, her lawyers also said: “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.”
 Related video: Trump fires CDC Director Susan Monarez (WCNC-TV Charlotte)
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:29
 WCNC-TV Charlotte
Trump fires CDC Director Susan Monarez
0
View on Watch
Meanwhile, three senior CDC leaders, including Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s chief medical officer, submitted their resignations Wednesday, according to emails viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Monarez was no longer CDC director and that Kennedy had full confidence in his team at the agency.
The Washington Post reported the news of Monarez’s ouster earlier.
The CDC is a division of HHS, which is overseen by Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic. A major source of disagreement between Monarez and Kennedy was over the CDC’s guidance on vaccines, according to the administration official. The agency issues recommendations on what vaccines adults and children should take.
In late July, Monarez was confirmed by the Senate in a 51-47 vote, along party lines. On Wednesday, Democrats who had voted against her nomination decried the effort to remove her.
“I had serious doubts about CDC Director Monarez’s willingness to stand up against RFK Jr.’s personal mission to destroy public health in America—I’m glad that I was wrong,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) on X. “If there are any adults left in the White House: we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of CDC. FIRE HIM.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), a medical doctor who was a pivotal voice in Kennedy’s confirmation fight in February, said late Wednesday that the CDC’s “high-profile departures will require oversight” by the Senate health committee that he runs but offered no further comment.
In backing Kennedy’s confirmation, Cassidy said at the time that he secured a number of concessions, including promises to maintain current federal vaccine recommendations and keep intact CDC website pages that say there isn’t a link between vaccines and autism.
About a week after Monarez was sworn in, a gunman who authorities said had been critical of the Covid-19 vaccine opened fire outside the CDC’s Atlanta campus, killing a police officer and striking six of the agency’s buildings. The shooting marked a devastating blow to morale following a swath of layoffs across the agency earlier this year, according to current and former employees.
Hundreds of current and former employees at the CDC and other federal health agencies said the attack came as Americans’ distrust of public health institutions grows and federal leaders politicize and tout health misinformation, according to a letter they wrote to Kennedy and members of Congress last week.
“When the federal workforce is not safe, America is not safe,” they wrote in the letter. “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information.”
Many employees at the agency in Atlanta have been working remotely in the weeks since the shooting.
Monarez has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and did postdoctoral research at Stanford University. She was previously deputy director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, a government agency working to develop healthcare products on a faster timeline.
The White House withdrew Trump’s first choice for CDC director, former congressman Dr. Dave Weldon, after senators worried he wasn’t qualified.
Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, is among those who resigned Wednesday.© Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Zuma Press
Houry, one of the senior CDC leaders who submitted her resignation, wrote in a note to colleagues that vaccines save lives and “the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives.” She cited the recent attack on the agency’s headquarters and the three-decade high in U.S. measles cases, which has led to three deaths.
“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, according to the email obtained by the Journal.
“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 added.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, also submitted his resignation.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health,” he wrote in an email.
Write to Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com, Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com and Jennifer Calfas at jennifer.calfas@wsj.com |
