Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been ousted as her lawyer claims she was targeted for “protecting the public over serving a political agenda.”
“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Health and Human Services wrote on X Wednesday evening. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.”
Attorneys for Monarez said in a statement she has “neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired.”
What HHS officials left unsaid, according to sources speaking toThe Washington Post, was that her ousting came after she refused HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to change vaccine policy.
At the heart of the matter was whether Monarez would support rescinding certain approvals for Covid-19 shots, according to the sources.
Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has already made efforts to roll back Covid-19 shots.
In May, he said Covid-19 vaccines were no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. And earlier this month, he canceled $500 million in vaccine development projects that use mRNA technology, which is used to fight respiratory viruses, including Covid-19.
Monarez would not commit to supporting the vaccine policy change without consulting her advisers, the sources said. This made Kennedy press her to resign for “not supporting President Trump’s agenda,” according to one person who spoke to The Washington Post.
Mark S. Zaid, a lawyer for Monarez, shared a statement on X Wednesday night suggesting she had been politically targeted and indicated she neither resigned nor received a termination notice.
“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 had been targeted.
Dr. Morarez 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,” the statement read.
White House Spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to The Independent Morarez was indeed fired: “As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is 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.”
The Independent has reached out to HHS for comment.
Monarez was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after President Donald Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.
She was sworn in on July 31, less than a month ago, making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the history of the 79-year-old agency.
During her Senate confirmation process, Monarez told senators that she values vaccines, public health interventions and rigorous scientific evidence. But she largely dodged questions about whether those positions put her at odds with Kennedy.
The Washington Post reported at least three senior CDC officials resigned shortly after Monarez’s removal, including Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Daskalakis wrote in a resignation email obtained by the publication, “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
