CDC director Susan Monarez was removed by the Department of Health and Human Services in an unsigned statement that offered no explanation. Her lawyers said she neither resigned nor received notice of termination from the White House. Monarez had been confirmed by the Senate less than a month earlier. She reportedly clashed with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr after declining to support sweeping changes to US vaccine policy. Her lawyers accused HHS and Kennedy of sidelining independent advisory committees, dismissing career experts and weaponizing public health for political gain, and said she was targeted for protecting science.
First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk, her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement. 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 has been targeted.
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, HHS said in an unsigned statement posted to social media. Her lawyers pushed back in a statement, saying she had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House of her termination.
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