The CDC director focused by the Trump administration refuses to resign
Several officials would have resigned from the CDC
The Panelists Tom Bevan, Josh Kraushaar and Yemisi Egbewole discuss resignations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the repression of President Donald Trump’s crime against the “Special Report”.
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Longtime government scientist Susan Monarez refuses to leave her post as director of centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS) announced that it had been withdrawn from less than a month after its enslavement.
Lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said they represented Monarez and said she “had not resigned or even dismissed”.
Lawyers have published a statement on social networks, saying that HHS and secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Armament Public Health for political ends and put millions of American lives in danger.
“When CDC director Susan Monarez refused to stadium non -scientific rubber, reckless guidelines and health experts dedicated to fire, she chose to protect the public to serve a political program,” the statement said. “For this, it was targeted. The DRE Monarez did not resign or received from notification from the White House that it was dismissed, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, it will not resign.”
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Susan Monarerez testifies to this during his June confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office building on June 25, 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images)
THE Washington Post reported that sources in the CDC, which spoke under the guise of anonymity, said that the HHS leaders, including Kennedy, sought to ask Monarez to undertake to cancel the approvals for certain COVVI-19 vaccines. When Monarez did not commit himself immediately, administration officials told her that she had to resign or that she would be dismissed.
Sources also said that she had then tried to involve the president of the best health committee in the Senate, Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La. This decision would still have made Kennedy angry.
When he was contacted to comment, an HHS spokesperson directed Fox News Digital to the response of the shared agency on his official account X.
“Susan Monarez is no longer director of centers for disease control and prevention,” said HHS. “We thank her for her service devoted to the American people. Secretary Kennedy has fully confidence in his team to the CDC who will continue to be vigilant to protect Americans from infectious diseases in the country and abroad.”
The White House confirmed to Fox News Digital that Monarez was being deleted.
“While the declaration of his lawyer very clearly indicates, Susan Monarez is not aligned on the president’s agenda to make America healthy,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai, in a statement. “Since Susan Monarrez refused to resign despite the information of the HHS management of his intention to do so, the White House dismissed Monarez from her position with the CDC.”
Monarez was operated by the Trump administration to lead the CDC after its initial candidate, Dave Weldon, withdrew from the restraint in March in the middle of the fears that he may not obtain enough support for the Senate to be confirmed. Shortly after Weldon resigned, Monarez was officially nominated to be the permanent director of the CDC and was finally confirmed in the last week of July.
During Monarez’s confirmation hearing, she expressed her support for vaccines and told legislators that she had “not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism”.
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A bottle with the COVVI-19 coronavirus vaccine in front of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logo. (Pavlo Conchar / Sopa Images / Lightrocket via Getty Images)
Before the confirmation of the Senate of Monarez, the CDC directors generally did not require the approval of the Senate, but this changed in 2022 when the Congress adopted a law, which makes it necessary. Monarez was the very first CDC director confirmed by the Senate in the history of the agency.
Monarrez was also the first CDC director without a medical diploma in more than seven decades. However, she holds a doctorate. in microbiology and immunology.
After having obtained her doctorate, Monarez entered the federal government, where she found herself in roles at the office of the scientific and technological policy of the White House, the National Security Council, the Department of Internal Security and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (Arpa-H). Its biography on the CDC website indicates that it has worked on “implementation efforts to improve the country’s biomedical innovation capacities, in particular the fight against resistance to antimicrobials, the expansion of the use of portable devices to promote the health of patients, ensure the confidentiality of personal health data and improve pandemic preparation.”
President Donald Trump appointed Susan Monarez to the right to direct the CDC. She was confirmed the last week of July before being ousted this week, less than a month later. (Getty Images; Us Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
A few hours after the news that Monarez no longer led the CDC, sources confirmed to Fox News Digital only at least three other senior CDC officials submitted their resignations, including the CDC director of his National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Demeter Daskalakis; Director of National Centers for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease, Dr. Daniel Jernigan; And the chief doctor of the CDC, Debra Houry.
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Daskalakis posted his long letter of resignation on X, citing various reasons for his departure, including “Les Views” by Secretary Kennedy and his staff.
Daskalakis said he could not continue to work in an administration that deals with the CDC “as a tool” to establish policies that “do not reflect scientific reality”. He specifically cited the recent changes of HHS in Kennedy has brought to programming vaccines for children and adults, arguing that it “threatens the life of the youngest Americans and pregnant people”.
The former director of the CDC also cited the efforts of the administration to “erase transgender populations, stop critical programs from national and international HIV and terminate key research”.
David Lewkowict of Fox News contributed to this report.
