Susan Monarez was suddenly fired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because of her belief in science. Monarez had been confirmed by the Senate in July after an earlier Trump nominee withdrew. Monarez, a microbiologist and immunologist and the first non-physician CDC director in 70 years, publicly affirmed that vaccines save lives and that fluoride supports oral health. Robert Kennedy Jr., who opposes vaccines and fluoride, led the agency and removed independent vaccine committee members while reversing COVID vaccine recommendations for healthy pregnant women and children. The CDC had already lost roughly a quarter of its staff and faced budget cuts; many top experts resigned in protest.
True to the spirit of America, the most catastrophic thing to happen at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month was not the attempted mass shooting in Atlanta of the agency's public health workers, but rather the sudden firing of its newly sworn-in director, Susan Monarez, because of her belief in science, which was, until recently, a foundational tenet of the CDC.
Although Monarez, a microbiologist and immunologist, was the first director without a medical degree to head the agency in 70 years, the public health community was reassured by her confirmation hearing, in which Monarez stated " vaccines absolutely save lives" and " fluoride is an important component to oral health." But these are radical beliefs to hold if one's boss is Robert Kennedy Jr., a man who hates fluoride almost as much as he hates to see a dead animal left unmolested.
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