Fired CDC director refuses to vacate post over vaccine policy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez refused to vacate her post after being fired on Wednesday, reportedly because she disagrees with the agency’s policy on the COVID-19 vaccine.
HHS announces Monarez’s ouster
Monarez’s ouster was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on August 27th, nearly a month after she was confirmed by the Senate on July 29th.
“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the department wrote in a short post on X. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy 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: It never happened and the HHS is bad
Attorney Mark Zaid responded to the post by saying he represents Monarez and that the director continues to fill that role. However, he did take aim at HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his policies and suggested that Monarez is refusing to abide by the department’s policies.
“First it was independent advisory committees and career experts,” Zaid wrote, referring to Kennedy’s replacement of so-called experts on vaccine advisory committees. Many committee members had conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry and never recommended against a vaccine that came up for review. “Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing 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 political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” Zaid continued.
White House: Monarez is fired
The attorney claimed Monarez “has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired.” Hours later, however, the White House confirmed Monarez’s termination.
“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 media outlets, adding that “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 C.D.C.”
Clash over vaccines
According to The New York Times, Monarez clashed with Kennedy over vaccine policy, though further details are not yet known. Kennedy announced earlier this month that HHS is terminating 22 contracts for mRNA vaccine development, collectively worth about $500 million. The CDC also recently pulled its endorsement of the COVID-19 shots for healthy children and young people, recommending them only for children at risk of severe illness or death and adults over 65. The FDA this week restricted its approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots to those populations.
Kennedy also confirmed this week that the HHS has found “certain interventions” to be causing high rates of autism. He told President Trump and his cabinet that the HHS will announce its findings in September, which many believe will point to vaccines as the cause.
Kennedy’s efforts to study and improve vaccine safety—including reviving a vaccine safety task force—have triggered anger from the medical establishment and legacy media.
Other CDC departures over vaccines
Monarez’s termination comes as four other top CDC officials have resigned this week: Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the center that issues vaccine recommendations; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who oversaw vaccine safety; and Dr. Jennifer Layden, who led the office of public health data.
Shockingly, Houry accused the HHS of censoring and politicizing science, despite the Biden administration’s widespread censorship and politicization of scientific evidence that called vaccine safety into question. Houry was appointed acting principal deputy director of CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she helped implement the agency’s disastrous vaccine policy. Under Houry, the CDC ignored growing reports of myocarditis in young people and withheld crucial data on the virus to increase vaccination rates.
“For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political paused or interpretations,” Houry wrote in her resignation letter. “Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact.”
Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was one of two CDC directors under Joe Biden, warned that the departure of these “exceptional leaders” is “weakening the CDC.” In 2023, Cohen admitted to locking down North Carolinians while she was the state’s health secretary, on the basis that other states were doing it too.
