The director of the United States’s top public health agency has been fired after less than one month in the job, and several top agency leaders have resigned.
Susan Monarez is not “aligned with” President Donald Trump’s agenda and refused to resign, so the White House terminated her, deputy press secretary Kush Desai said on Wednesday night.
The US Department of Health and Human Services had announced her departure in a brief social media post on Wednesday afternoon.
Her lawyers responded with a statement, saying Monarez had neither resigned nor been told she was fired.
“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,” lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell wrote in a statement.
“This is not about one official. It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science. The attack on Dr Monarez is a warning to every American: our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within,” they said.
Officials resign
Her departure coincided with the resignations this week of at least four top CDC officials.
The list includes Dr Debra Houry, the agency’s deputy director; Dr Daniel Jernigan, head of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Dr Demetre Daskalakis, head of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
In an email reported by The Associated Press, Houry lamented the effects on the agency from planned budget cuts, reorganisation and firings.
Monarez, 50, was the agency’s 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after 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.
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