US CDC chief fired after weeks in role as other top officials quit
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The White House has dismissed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, less than a month after she took office, while four senior officials resigned amid mounting disputes over vaccine policy.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has introduced sweeping changes since May, including withdrawing federal recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women and healthy children, and replacing the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel with hand-picked members, some known for anti-vaccine views.
One of the departing officials warned that these shifts endangered public health, particularly for children and expectant mothers. The resignations reflect broader concerns over what critics describe as the politicisation of the CDC and the undermining of scientific standards.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said Monarez was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” and had been terminated after refusing to step down voluntarily.
Her lawyers, Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, rejected claims she had resigned, insisting Monarez, “a person of integrity and devoted to science,” would not abandon her role under pressure.
