US CDC chief fired after weeks in role as other top officials quit agency

After less than a month in the position, the head of the nation’s top public health agency was fired, and several senior agency officials have left.

Vice press secretary Kush Desai said on Wednesday night that Susan Monarez’s refusal to “align with” President Donald Trump’s agenda caused the White House to fire her.

In a brief social media post on Wednesday afternoon, the US Department of Health and Human Services made her announcement.

Her attorneys responded with a statement, claiming Monarez had not received any notice of her termination.

“She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda when CDC Director Susan Monarez chose to reject unscientific, careless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” She has been targeted for that, according to attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell in a statement.

Not just one official is involved, they say. It concerns the systematic destruction of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science. Every American should be warned by the attack on Dr. Monarez because our evidence-based systems are being undermined internally, they said.

Officials resign.

Her departure came at a time when at least four senior CDC officials resigned this week.

Dr. Debra Houry, the organization’s deputy director, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the agency’s director, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, its director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Dr. Jennifer Layden, the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, are among the list.

Houry lamented the agency’s repercussions from planned budget cuts, restructuring, and hirings in an email that The Associated Press obtained.

In the wake of a 2023 law, Monarez, 50, became the agency’s 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation. After Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon, she was appointed acting director in January and then chosen as the nominee in March.

She became the shortest-serving CDC director in the 79-year history of the organization on July 31 when she was sworn in less than a month later.