Susan Monarez, who was ousted as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday afternoon after only weeks on the job, said hours later that she had not been fired and would not resign.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted a statement on the social platform X at about 5:30 p.m. EDT saying, “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Less than two hours later, Washington, D.C., attorney Mark Zaid released a defiant statement on Monarez’s behalf.
“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,” the statement said.
“Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”
The White House confirmed late Wednesday that Monarez was removed from her post after she declined 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,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. “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.”
According to The New York Times, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Monarez to resign or be fired Monday over tensions around vaccine policy.
Instead, Monarez reached out to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health Committee, further infuriating Kennedy, according to the Times.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed to The Hill earlier Wednesday that Monarez had been ousted as CDC director. The Senate confirmed her July 29, after President Trump nominated her for the role.
Monarez was the first CDC director to require Senate confirmation, after the role became increasingly politicized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Washington Post was first to report Monarez’s firing.
Hours after the news was reported, four senior CDC officials announced their resignations in emails to colleagues, citing the weaponization of public health agencies under Kennedy.
“For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political paused or interpretations. Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact,” CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry wrote in her resignation letter.
“Recently, the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of U.S. measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency.”
Prior to being nominated to lead the CDC, Monarez served as acting CDC director shortly after the start of the second Trump administration. She previously served as deputy director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
Trump chose Monarez as his second choice after his first pick, former Florida Rep. David Weldon (R), failed to garner enough GOP support.
Monarez’s nomination was rather drawn out, being confirmed four months after Trump announced he had picked on her Truth Social.
She came to the role with glowing commendations from former colleagues who described her to The Hill as “data-driven,” nonpartisan and an excellent coordinator of public-private partnerships. During her time as acting CDC director, however, it was reported that Monarez did not push back on the White House’s directive to remove CDC pages containing the terms “LGBTQ” and “transgender” and did not seek to preserve crucial data that was taken down.
One former colleague said Monarez was not someone who would seek to aid in dismantling the CDC and speculated she was acting pragmatically to mitigate broader attacks on existing data.
Brett Giroir, a former U.S. assistant secretary for health and former acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Monarez was likely picked for her ability to provide “an objective, data and science-driven assessment of prospective policy and operational changes that are currently being considered.”
During her Senate confirmation hearing, Monarez trod lightly, at times putting distance between herself and Kennedy’s views. She stated her belief that “vaccines save lives” and said she did not see a causal link between autism and vaccinations, something Kennedy has long speculated on.
She gave tacit approval of water fluoridation when pressed by Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (Md.), saying she believed the fluoridated water in her own Maryland community was safe to drink. Prior to his confirmation, Kennedy said the Trump administration would advise that water systems remove the cavity-preventing mineral.
But when pressed by senators on whether she would break with Kennedy on any issues, Monarez avoided directly answering, instead saying at the time, “If I’m confirmed as CDC director, I look forward to supporting the secretary with science and evidence and making sure that I am giving him the best information possible to help support some of these critical decisions.”
