White House Says It Has Fired CDC Director Susan Monarez

The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it had fired Susan Monarez, the recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after she refused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s call to resign.

A statement posted on X by Monarez’s attorney, Mark Zaid, claimed that she was targeted for refusing to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”

“Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,” the statement added.

The White House pushed back on the rebuke, saying it was evidence of Monarez’s misalignment with the administration’s goals.

“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 told NOTUS. “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.”

Monarez has not yet directly commented on her dismissal. Three other top CDC officials submitted their resignations in the wake of her ouster, which came after less than a month on the job.

“We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a brief statement posted on the social media site X.

It added that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

Monarez’s ejection comes only weeks after she became the first CDC director to undergo a Senate confirmation process. A career public health bureaucrat, Monarez was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CDC after he withdrew his first nominee, former congressman Dave Weldon, the morning Weldon’s Senate hearings were set to begin. Weldon had drawn criticism for his vaccine skepticism and views on autism.

Monarez’s departure was first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by several publications.

The CDC was rocked earlier this month by a shooting at its Atlanta campus. One police officer was killed while responding to the attack. The shooter reportedly believed he had been injured by the COVID-19 shot and attacked the CDC to protest.

In a call with CDC employees after the shooting, Monarez reportedly told staff that “misinformation can be dangerous” and that the agency should rely on “rational, evidence-based discourse.”

But Monarez’s views may have clashed with those of other top HHS officials: Kennedy announced today that the Food and Drug Administration was placing new restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines, a decision that’s been decried by public health experts.

It was only the latest in a series of decisions by Kennedy that could put Americans’ easy access to vaccines in jeopardy. Earlier this month, Kennedy heeded calls from anti-vaccine groups to bring back a committee to review childhood vaccines. He’s also indicated that he’d like to make changes to the federal program that responds to vaccine injury compensation claims.

One CDC employee texted NOTUS that the news of Monarez’s ousting didn’t come as a surprise.

“We were all nervous for her,” they said. “We all suspected after she stood up for us and acknowledged the misinformation that was being spread about Covid.”

“We thought, wow, she is taking a risk by agreeing with actual FACTS, and we wondered if she might be able to be the resistance in HHS,” the employee added. “But nope.”