US CDC director fired for ‘refusing RFK Jr’s directives’ weeks after Senate confirmation

The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, has been fired from her role, a month after her appointment was confirmed by the Senate.

Her ouster was confirmed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after it posted on X, thanking Monarez “for her dedicated service to the American people.” It is, however, not clear why she was removed as the director of the health agency.

Monarez’s attorneys said she is challenging her ouster, accusing US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr. of targeting her for refusing to support “unscientific directives” and dismissing health experts.

“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,” attorneys Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell said in a statement.

Monarez, a longtime federal scientist, was chosen by President Donald Trump to lead the CDC and was confirmed in a Senate vote in July.

She was nominated after Trump withdrew his initial choice, former Republican congressman Dave Weldon, who faced criticism over his views on vaccines and autism.

According to a report by CBS News, at least three other senior CDC leaders resigned following Monarez’s departure from the agency. Daniel Jernigan, who led the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, is one of the officials who quit, citing “the current context in the Department”.

Monarez was the first CDC director in five decades without a medical degree, bringing a background in infectious disease research to the role.

During her first month leading the agency, she supported CDC staff following a shooting at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters by a gunman who believed he had been harmed by Covid vaccines.