What to know about Susan Monarez, Trump's CDC director fighting her firing
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CDC Director Susan Monarez's departure came the same day HHS announced it will limit who is eligible for COVID vaccines. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
The Department of Health and Human Services attempted to oust CDC director Susan Monarez, but she's not going down without a fight.
Why it matters: Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the HHS has made a number of controversial moves denounced by the medical and science communities — particularly on vaccines where Kennedy has put up new barriers — causing friction between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and HHS.
Driving the news: Monarez left her post as director just weeks after being sworn in, the HHS said on Wednesday — a claim that was immediately disputed by her lawyers.
- Monarez's attorneys posted on X Wednesday night that she "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."
Top CDC officials resigned following the HHS' announcement.
- Those include Debra Houry, the CDC's chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, according to emails reviewed by Axios.
The intrigue: Monarez disputes the HHS' unilateral ability to fire her, mirroring Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook's battle over the administration's attempts to remove her.
Here's what to know:
Monarez's background
The Senate in late July confirmed Monarez to be CDC director on a party line vote of 51 to 47.
- Monarez had already been serving as the acting director of the agency.
- Monarez was viewed as a more mainstream pick than President Trump's first choice for the job, Dave Weldon, whose nomination Trump pulled in March.
Monarez previously served as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which focuses on breakthrough cures and technology.
- Monarez was involved in initiatives such as the ethical use of AI in health care, ending the opioid epidemic, and affordability, accessibility and expanded access to behavioral health services.
- She also served in the White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and on the National Security Council.
- She completed her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Flashback: Monarez avoided directly contradicting Kennedy during her June confirmation hearing, while also making statements that opposed some of his more controversial stances, such as saying she had not seen a link between vaccines and autism.
Monarez's ousting, friction between CDC and Kennedy
Monarez's departure came the same day the HHS announced that it will limit who is eligible for COVID vaccines.
- Monarez had clashed with Kennedy over COVID vaccine policy changes and tried to get Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to intervene after Kennedy urged her to resign, the Washington Post reported.
That tension between the CDC officials and Kennedy is clear from the resignations that followed the HHS' Monarez announcement.
- "The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer," Daskalakis wrote in a heated resignation letter posted on X.
- "Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact," Houry wrote in an email.
What they're saying: Monarez's attorney Mark Zaid alleged in a statement that Monarez was being targeted because she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts."
- He added that she chose "protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted."
- "Our client was notified tonight by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired. As a presidential appointee, Senate-confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her," Zaid wrote on X.
The other side: White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an emailed Wednesday night statement: "As her attorney's statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again."
- He added: "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."
