After serving as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for less than a month, Susan Monarez has been fired.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that Monarez was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.”
“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,” Desai told Fox News.
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed her removal from the CDC. “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” HHS said. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. Secretary Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”
Monarez’s attorneys disputed claims of her departure, saying, “First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.”
“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,” the statement said. “For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”
Kennedy previously called Monarez a “public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials.”
“I have full confidence in her ability to restore the CDC’s role as the most trusted authority in public health and to strengthen our nation’s readiness to confront infectious diseases and biosecurity threats,” he said in July.
