August 28, 2025
3 min read
Key takeaways:
- Susan Monarez, PhD, was nominated in March and confirmed by the Senate in July.
- Her lawyers contradict HHS’s assertion that she is no longer CDC director.
[Editor’s note: This is a developing news story. Please check back soon for more details.]
HHS announced Wednesday afternoon that Susan Monarez, PhD, is no longer the director of the CDC, touching off a series of high-level resignations at the agency — and pushback from her lawyers, who insist she remains director.
HHS said Susan Monarez, PhD, is no longer director of the CDC. Source: Tada Images – stock.adobe.com
HHS made the surprise announcement on X, thanking Monarez “for her dedicated service to the American people” and adding that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “full confidence in his team at CDC who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”
Monarez was nominated by President Donald J. Trump for the position in March and confirmed in a 52-47 vote on July 30, just 4 weeks ago. It was the first time the position required Senate confirmation.
Monarez’s lawyers responded to the initial announcement with a statement on social media saying she had not resigned or been fired. The statement accused Kennedy of “weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.”
“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 pollical agenda,” her lawyers Mark. S. Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said in the statement. “For that reason, she has been targeted.”
Zaid and Lowell did not specify what Monarez had been asked to do, but multiple media outlets reported that she had been pressured to fire several CDC officials, who later resigned after HHS’s announcement that Monarez was out.
Later, Zaid said Monarez had been notified by “White House staff” that she was fired but was not accepting that as a formal termination.
“As a presidential appointee, only the president himself can fire her. For this reason, we reject notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC director,” Zaid wrote. “We have notified the White House Counsel of our position.”
In a statement, the White House told Healio that Monarez was fired after refusing to resign.
“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,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.
Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, shared his resignation letter on X and said the decision did not come easily. He said “the views [Kennedy] and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people.”
“Enough is enough,” he wrote.
Daskalakis also noted recent changes to CDC vaccine recommendations, initiated by Kennedy, which he said “threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”
“Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world,” he wrote. “The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest.”
His letter was addressed to Debra Houry, MD, MPH, the CDC’s chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science, who was also reported to have resigned, according to multiple outlets that reviewed her resignation letter. The same outlets reported the resignation of another top official, Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
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