An all-staff CDC meeting cancellation on Monday signaled internal disruption. Susan Monarez led the CDC for less than a month after Senate confirmation in late July and swearing-in on July 31. She led the agency through an Aug. 8 shooting and was removed this week. Her attorneys said she was targeted because she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts." Sources said a meeting with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went very badly last week. HHS and the White House announced her departure. Kennedy appointed Jim O'Neill as acting CDC director while he remains at HHS; O'Neill has prior HHS roles, investment ties to Peter Thiel, and criticized the CDC's pandemic role.
CDC Director Susan Monarez led the agency for less than a month. She was confirmed by the Senate in late July, sworn in on July 31, led the agency through a gunman's attack on Aug. 8, and was forced out of the job this week. Her attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that she was targeted because she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts."
O'Neill previously served various roles at HHS under President George W. Bush. Since then he's mostly run investment funds for billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. He had a senate hearing for his current role in HHS. O'Neill was an early supporter of Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement and a vocal critic on social media of the CDC's role during the pandemic.
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