Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, a longtime federal scientist, was removed from her position for refusing to support Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda.
Over the past week or two, Monarez pushed back against demands by RFK Jr. and the Trump White House to limit access to COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccinations down the road.
In a private meeting earlier this week, RFK Jr. instructed Monarez to fire her senior staff and step down from her position for failing to support Trump’s agenda. Monarez refused.
Today, the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that Monarez was no longer at the CDC. Lawyers for Susan Monarez responded to the announcement, making it clear that she had not resigned and had not been fired. They even went as far as calling out RFK Jr. (the head of HHS) for efforts to purge health officials from government and put Americans’ lives at risk.
After the statement from her lawyers, the White House formally fired Susan Monarez. But since Trump himself did not fire Monarez, as is required for all presidential appointees, the CDC still belonged to the nonpartisan scientist temporarily.
The next day, August 28, the White House named RFK Jr.’s deputy at HHS, Jim O’Neill, as the acting director of the CDC.
Amidst Monarez’s fight against the administration, CDC officials began walking out in fear for their future and their country.
Monarez’s public battle to keep science at the forefront of the CDC was their final straw, as RFK Jr. has already terminated vaccine research, fired hundreds of employees, and implemented detrimental budget cuts.
Conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccines (which RFK Jr. once said include “poison”) have also put CDC officials’ lives at risk. On August 8, a man who believed a Covid vaccine was harming him attempted a mass shooting at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta.
RFK Jr. responded to the unfolding events by stating that he’s “getting rid of” officials who support vaccines in order to “change the institutional culture” around public health. He also insinuated that future CDC officials should be against access to abortion.
