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Susan Monarez has been ousted as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just weeks after her Senate confirmation, the latest in a series of high-level shakeups at the beleaguered public health agency.

News of Monarez’s ouster first appeared in The Washington Post, which cited multiple officials within the Trump administration. When Ars Technica reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment, the department instead referred the publication to a post on its official X account. The statement read:

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. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov, who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

The post did not provide any explanation as to why Monarez was removed from her position. The Washington Post reported that the US health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted anti-vaccine activist, had been pressuring Monarez for weeks over her support for COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy had asked her to rescind approvals for the vaccines, but Monarez refused to do so before the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees had the chance to review the matter. Kennedy then asked Monarez to resign, claiming that she was not “loyal” to President Trump or his administration’s policies.

Monarez refused to resign, instead speaking to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La. ), who had helped smooth Kennedy’s own Senate confirmation earlier this year by extracting commitments from him. Cassidy objected to Kennedy’s treatment of Monarez, leading to a confrontation between the two. After that exchange, Monarez was told by administration officials that she was expected to resign or be fired.

Monarez’s lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, issued a statement on social media, in which they stated that Monarez had not resigned and had yet to receive official notice of her dismissal from the White House. “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” the statement read. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” Zaid told Ars Technica that as of 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27, Monarez had not received an official termination notice.

Public Health Agency with Crisis of Confidence

Monarez’s confirmation in late July had been considered a major success. She was confirmed 51–47 along party lines, becoming the first CDC director in history to be subject to Senate confirmation after a 2022 law mandated it. Kennedy himself swore her in on July 31, commending her “impeccable scientific credentials” and expressing optimism she could rebuild trust in the CDC.

Monarez’s résumé is long and impressive. She holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology, and she previously served as the deputy director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under the Biden administration. She had also held roles with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council. She was also the acting director of the CDC briefly earlier this year, before stepping down once Trump nominated her.

Monarez’s appointment was widely praised by public health experts. Jennifer Nuzzo, from Brown University’s Global Health Institute, called her a “loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism.” Georges Benjamin, the director of the American Public Health Association, said she was “a terrific researcher with a reputation as an able manager.”

However, her tenure as director has been short and tumultuous. The CDC has been shedding hundreds of staff members in the past few months due to layoffs and buyouts, and its many programs have also been cut or constrained. Kennedy himself has contributed to the tension by calling COVID-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made” and referring to the CDC as “a cesspool of corruption.”

On August 8, tragedy further struck the CDC when a gunman who had been radicalized by vaccine misinformation opened fire on the CDC campus. A total of nearly 500 rounds were fired, with around 200 rounds striking six different CDC buildings. One local police officer was killed, and CDC staff were terrified as they scrambled for safety. The shooter had cited vaccines as a cause of his own medical conditions and had chosen the CDC as his target for that reason.

Now, news of Monarez’s reported ouster has plunged the agency deeper into crisis. Stat News confirmed the resignation of three high-ranking CDC officials: Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Daskalakis included a message in his departure note, in which he wrote, “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Houry also included a note on leaving the CDC, in which she emphasized that science “should never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

Earlier in the day, Politico also reported the resignation of Jennifer Layden, who served as head of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

For many, both within and outside the CDC, the latest events signal a nadir for the agency that was once the standard-bearer of evidence-based public health. It now instead faces a wave of resignations, politicization, and a crisis of confidence even as public health threats continue to loom large.