The head of the top US public health agency refused to step down on Wednesday, August 27, accusing vaccine skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of "weaponizing public health" after his department announced her dismissal. Susan Monarez, who has been director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for less than a month, has "neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired," her lawyers said in a statement sent to AFP.
"As a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign," lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said. The statement accused Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who is known for his vaccine skepticism – of "weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk."
The CDC chief was targeted after she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts," it added. Monarez, a health scientist and longtime civil servant, earned US Senate confirmation for the job and was then sworn in by Kennedy on July 31. Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the CDC, announced her dismissal earlier Wednesday in a curt statement on X.
"Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people," the department said. The White House later appeared to confirm that Monarez had been dismissed.
"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 spokesman Kush Desai said in an emailed statement to AFP. "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."
The Washington Post, which first reported Monarez's dismissal, said Kennedy pressured her to resign after she refused to commit to supporting his vaccination policy change. In the aftermath, senior CDC official Demetre Daskalakis also announced that he was resigning.
"Enough is enough," he wrote on X. "I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health."
Additional senior CDC officials followed suit in resigning, according to US media reports. Since taking office, RFK Jr, as he is known, has initiated a sweeping overhaul of US vaccine policy, dismissing renowned immunization experts, restricting access to Covid-19 shots, and slashing funding for the development of new vaccines. Such measures are predominantly against scientific consensus, and have been criticized by outside experts.
The White House in March had to abandon President Donald Trump's first nominee as CDC head, David Weldon, a doctor known for his anti-vaccine stance, for fear he would not receive sufficient Senate support for confirmation.
The Monarez departure comes amid a crisis at the Atlanta-based CDC, which was the target of an armed attack in early August by a man who reportedly blamed the Covid vaccine on an unspecified illness.
Hundreds of health agency employees and former employees subsequently signed an open letter condemning Kennedy's actions and accusing the health secretary of putting people at risk by spreading misinformation, particularly about vaccines.