.

CDC Director Susan Monarez has been removed from her post only weeks after Senate confirmation, in what the Washington Post describes as “another major shake-up” at the beleaguered public health agency.

Ars Technica contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for confirmation of the story and was directed to a post on its official X account. It states, in part:

Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov, who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

The post gives no indication as to the reason for the personnel change. The Washington Post says that HHS Secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly berated Monarez for not doing enough to advance Trump’s agenda on COVID-19 vaccines, specifically by reversing their approval.

Kennedy reportedly told her to resign or fire members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees. Monarez declined the latter, which Kennedy did not appear to want, but insisted she would need to consult with those committees before taking action. Kennedy then told her she was not doing enough to help Trump and had to resign.

Monarez refused, and instead called Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La. ), who played a central role in Kennedy’s own confirmation earlier this year, after personally vouching for him. Kennedy’s demands were unacceptable, Cassidy responded, leading to what The Washington Post describes as a “heated argument” between the two.

Following that argument, several Trump administration officials visited Monarez to “deliver the final verdict: Resign, or be fired.” (Emphasis in original.)

Attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell released a statement on social media that Monarez had not, in fact, resigned, and was still waiting for the White House to deliver any formal notice of termination. “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” it reads. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.” Zaid later confirmed to Ars Technica that as of 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27, Monarez had received no such notice.

CDC Now Close to a Breaking Point

Monarez’s own confirmation was itself cause for celebration back in late July. She was approved 51–47 strictly along party lines and had the distinction of being the first CDC director in history to be subject to Senate confirmation, after the Senate approved such a requirement under the CDC Act of 2022.

Kennedy swore her in personally on July 31, telling reporters that she had “impeachable scientific credentials” and vowing that she would work to restore trust in the CDC.

Monarez has an impressive résumé, with a PhD in microbiology and immunology and roles as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in the Biden administration, along with stints at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council. She herself briefly served as the acting CDC director earlier this year, before withdrawing to be formally nominated by Trump.

Experts in public health policy had spoken out to celebrate her hiring. Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University said, “She’s a loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism.” Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association called her a “strong researcher” and “effective manager.”

Yet, her own tenure has been brief and ended amid strife at the CDC, which has already lost hundreds of employees through layoffs and buyouts. It has also experienced major staff departures or reductions in its programs and other capabilities, as the Trump administration cuts funding or redirects staff. Kennedy himself has caused a stir by calling COVID-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” and has called the CDC “a cesspool of corruption.”

Tragedy struck the agency on August 8, when a gunman who became radicalized by vaccine misinformation and who blamed vaccines for his own health problems shot up the CDC campus. According to Politico, roughly 500 rounds were fired, with around 200 of them hitting six different CDC buildings, and one local police officer was killed, with staff desperately seeking cover. The shooter explicitly targeted the CDC, even leaving his own justification in written form nearby.

In addition to Monarez, the removal of whom Stat News has confirmed, three high-level officials have resigned as of today: Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer, Deb Houry; and Demetre Daskalakis, who was director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In a letter of resignation, Daskalakis wrote, “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Houry, for her part, similarly insisted that science “must never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

On the same day, Politico reported that Jennifer Layden, the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, had also resigned.

In and out of the CDC, these recent developments have been met with alarm. An agency once the gold standard of science-driven public health now faces a crisis of leadership, widespread loss of morale, and a torrent of resignations at a time when public health needs have never been higher.