Details about the events leading up to the firing of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez and the resignations of four other high-ranking scientists have come to light, illustrating a dramatic conflict over vaccine policy.
Allies of the five former CDC officials have leapt to defend their scientific integrity against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose rhetoric and vaccine policies they blame for the conflict.
But Make America Healthy Again advocates from the White House have backed Kennedy’s decision as a necessary cleansing of a corrupt agency that has lost public trust since the COVID-19 pandemic.
White House spokesman Kush Desai confirmed late Wednesday night that Monarez had been terminated despite protestations from her attorneys that she needs to be contacted by President Donald Trump directly to make the termination official.
“Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” Desai told the Washington Examiner. “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.”
Monarez was always seen as an outlier pick in the MAHA movement, as she had decades of experience in government biomedical research agencies.
Multiple events during her monthlong tenure put her at odds with Kennedy’s moves, which have been labeled as anti-vaccine by critics.
Before Monarez’s confirmation hearing, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ostensibly due to financial conflicts of interest between board members and the pharmaceutical industry. Within days, Kennedy replaced the members with seven outsiders more aligned with his skepticism toward vaccines.
Monarez’s firing came only hours after Kennedy announced that the Food and Drug Administration had limited approval of this year’s COVID-19 vaccines to only those with risk factors for severe disease and those over age 65, an unpopular decision among many public health establishment figures.
Four other high-ranking CDC officials issued their resignations shortly after Monarez: Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.
The breaking point
Tensions between the HHS and CDC heads reportedly boiled over on Monday when Kennedy summoned Monarez to his office to demand that she fire senior leadership in her agency, according to individuals close to the matter who spoke with the New York Times on Wednesday.
Monarez shortly thereafter reportedly called Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate health committee, asking for assistance. Cassidy, a key vote in getting Kennedy confirmed, said on the Senate floor in February that Kennedy had promised the senator that his committee would be involved in vaccine policy set by a Kennedy HHS.
Cassidy reportedly called Kennedy, and Kennedy summoned Monarez again the next day, accusing her of being a “leaker,” according to reports.
Cassidy’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Former acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters Thursday morning that he had spoken with Monarez, who told him the conflict over her leadership boiled down to Kennedy’s request for her to fire top leadership staff and to approve vaccine decisions that contradicted scientific evidence.
“She said that there were two things she would never do in the job. One was anything that was deemed illegal, and the second was anything that she felt flew in the face of science,” Besser told reporters. “And she said she was asked to do both of those, one in terms of firing her leadership, who are talented civil servants, like herself, and the other was to rubber-stamp ACIP recommendations that flew in the face of science.”
Monarez’s attorney, Mark Zaid, declined the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
‘Authoritarian’ leadership at HHS
Daskalakis, who played a leading role in the CDC’s response to the mpox outbreak in 2023 and the ongoing avian influenza outbreak, made his resignation letter public late Wednesday evening. In it, he accused Kennedy of being “authoritarian” in his leadership.
Daskalakis’s letter outlines that the CDC has had to “retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts” on key policy matters.
That includes Wednesday’s decision to approve COVID-19 vaccines only for those at risk of severe disease, the firing of the ACIP board members, and the announcement of new ACIP members “before onboarding and vetting had [been] completed.”
The letter only refers to Kennedy by name but references an ACIP working group on COVID-19 vaccines, which media outlets reported would be run by new ACIP member Retsef Levi, who has previously called for COVID-19 shots to be taken off the market.
“The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader,” wrote Daskalakis. “Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults.”
Daskalakis also said that “eugenics plays prominently” in anti-vaccine ideas circulating within HHS, as they “will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer.”
Kennedy said on Fox and Friends Thursday morning that there is a “malaise at the agency” that requires an overhaul of leadership.
“The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it, and we are fixing it. And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” said Kennedy.
‘A dangerous man’
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), a leading health policymaker in the Senate who serves alongside Cassidy on the Senate finance and health committees, said that ousting Kennedy ought to be a public health priority for the Trump administration.
“If there are any adults left in the White House, it’s well past time they face reality and fire RFK Jr.,” wrote Murray Wednesday night. “He is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation—leaving us unprepared for the next deadly pandemic and snuffing out potential cures while he’s at it.”
Public health experts across the country are still reeling from Wednesday’s events.
American Medical Association president Dr. Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement Thursday that the firing and resignations “are highly alarming at a challenging moment for public health.”
“This destabilization comes at a time when CDC’s credibility and leadership are more essential than ever,” said Mukkamala. “In the wake of CDC budget cuts and the termination of hundreds of employees earlier this year, the AMA is deeply concerned that this turmoil leaves us highly susceptible to public health threats.”
Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said on LinkedIn Thursday morning that Daskalakis’s letter “raises a number of disturbing issues that normally would lead to Senate oversight.”
Former FDA vaccines and biologics chief Dr. Peter Marks and FDA food scientist Kevin Halls issued public resignation letters similar to Daskalakis’s, which Califf highlighted in his social media post.
Cassidy said Wednesday evening that the “high profile departures will require oversight” from his Senate committee.
The Senate Finance Committee announced Thursday afternoon that Kennedy would testify, later confirming that the hearing was scheduled well before the leadership shake-up at CDC.
White House fully backs Kennedy
MAHA insiders and White House staff have come out in full support of the decision to fire Monarez.
Calley Means, a key player in MAHA agenda-setting and special adviser on health to Trump and Kennedy, posted on X Thursday afternoon that public trust in the CDC is dismal due to myriad policy decisions made during the pandemic, from collaboration with the teachers unions on school closures to concealing myocarditis risks of COVID-19 vaccines.
“The CDC’s job is to control disease. They receive an F on that mission,” wrote Means on X.
Means said that the agency’s failures do not “take away from the dedicated employees still at the CDC,” but that “the media and public health ‘experts’ need to grow up and show some humility. Rome is burning when it comes to American health.”
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS TRUMP’S FIRING OF CDC DIRECTOR: ‘NOT ALIGNED WITH HIS MISSION’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday afternoon that Trump fired Monarez after she told Kennedy she would resign and then changed her mind.
“A new replacement will be announced by either the President or the Secretary very soon, and the President and Secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC,” said Leavitt.
Samanatha-Jo Roth and Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
