The White House has dismissed Dr. Susan Monarez, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), after a dramatic standoff with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.
Monarez, a veteran health scientist and long-serving civil servant, had led the CDC for less than a month before her removal was confirmed on Wednesday, August 27.
The decision comes amid widespread controversy surrounding Kennedy’s overhaul of U.S. vaccine programs.
Clash Over Vaccine Policies
According to reports, Kennedy pressured Monarez to resign after she refused to endorse his sweeping changes to national immunization policy.
These changes included restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines, removing top vaccine experts, and cutting funding for vaccine development positions largely condemned by the scientific community.
When Monarez refused to resign, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on X (formerly Twitter) that she “is no longer director.”
Her legal team, however, pushed back, insisting she had neither resigned nor received official dismissal papers.
They argued that only the President himself could terminate her appointment, calling the White House notification “legally deficient.”
White House Confirms Termination
Despite the resistance, White House spokesman Kush Desai later confirmed her removal.
“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.
Since she refused to resign, the White House has terminated her from her position at the CDC,” Desai said in a statement to AFP.
Monarez’s lawyers countered that the dismissal amounted to an unlawful attempt to sideline scientific integrity.
They accused Kennedy of “weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.”
Mass Resignations at CDC
The fallout has triggered turmoil inside the CDC.
At least five senior officials resigned following Monarez’s dismissal, according to the union representing over 2,000 CDC workers.
Among those who stepped down were:
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases,
Dr. Debra Houry, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, head of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
In his resignation statement, Daskalakis wrote: “Enough is enough. I cannot serve in an environment that treats the CDC as a tool to push policies detached from scientific reality.”
Since assuming office, Kennedy has aggressively reshaped U.S. vaccine policy, moves experts say undermine decades of progress in immunization.
Critics warn that these changes could endanger public health and increase vaccine hesitancy.
The crisis also follows a violent attack on CDC headquarters earlier this month, when an armed man who reportedly blamed vaccines for an illness stormed the facility.
Hundreds of CDC employees and alumni have since signed an open letter accusing Kennedy of spreading misinformation and endangering lives.
Dr. Monarez, who was sworn in as CDC Director on July 31 after Senate confirmation, had been widely seen as a career professional committed to science-based health policy.
Her sudden dismissal highlights the growing tension between the administration’s political agenda and established scientific consensus.
With senior resignations piling up, the CDC faces one of the deepest crises in its history, raising concerns about its ability to lead U.S. public health efforts at a critical time.