Lawyers for Monarez say she was \u2018targeted\u2019 for \u2018protecting the public\u2019 by not endorsing \u2018unscientific\u2019 orders<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US\u2019s top public health agency was plunged into chaos on Wednesday after the Trump administration<\/a> moved to oust its leader Susan Monarez, sworn in less than a month ago, as her lawyers said she would not resign and that she was being \u201ctargeted\u201d for her pro-science stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was ousted on Wednesday evening, according to a statement from Department of Health<\/a> and Human Services (HHS) that offered no explanation its decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSusan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people,\u201d HHS said in an unsigned statement posted to social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate just last month, appeared to have run afoul of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, after she declined to support sweeping changes to US vaccine policies, according to reporting from the Washington Post<\/a> and the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Wednesday evening, her lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell told the Associated Press she had neither resigned nor been told she was fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFirst it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,\u201d her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement. \u201cWhen CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDr Monarez 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,\u201d her lawyers added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The standoff left confusion over whether or not Monarez was still in charge. The White House deputy press secretary, Kush Desai, doubled down on her removal in a statement to the Guardian and other news outlets late on Wednesday night. \u201cSince 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, only the president has the power to fire a Senate-confirmed official, and some were quick to point out<\/a> the statement curiously did not name Donald Trump himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ousting has set off a wave of departures within the agency, with at least three other CDC leaders publicly resigning after the HHS announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most explosive resignation letter came from Dr Demetre Daskalakis<\/a>, who stepped down as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, according to Inside Medicine<\/a>, an industry newsletter that obtained the full statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health. You are the best team I have ever worked with, and you continue to shine despite this dark cloud over the agency and our profession,\u201d Daskalakis wrote. \u201cPlease take care of yourself and your teams and make the right decisions for yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those concerns were echoed by another departing CDC leader, Dr Deb Houry, the chief medical officer, who wrote that \u201cFor the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel Jernigan, who ran the Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, has also quit the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hours before Monarez was removed, Kennedy hailed<\/a> decisions by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday revoking<\/a> the emergency use authorization for the Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax that CDC experts estimate saved 3.2 million lives in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vaccines from the three manufacturers are now authorized by the FDA only for<\/a> people who are 65 and older, or younger people with an underlying medical condition that puts them at risk for severe disease. Even those that qualify for the vaccines will only be able to get them in the US if the advisory panel, reshaped by Kennedy to include Covid vaccine opponents, votes to approve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monarez, 50, was the agency\u2019s 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon. She was sworn in on 31 July \u2013 less than a month ago \u2013 making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the history of the 79-year-old agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Public health experts, meanwhile, are sounding the alarm about the chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening at the CDC should frighten every American Regardless of whether you are MAGA, MAHA, neither, or don\u2019t give a damn about labels or politics. It\u2019s unclear whether the CDC director\u2014confirmed just weeks ago\u2014has been fired or not. Absolute shitshow,\u201d Dr Craig Spencer, an emergency medicine doctor and professor at Brown University School of Public Health, posted<\/a>. \u201cAnd incredible career professionals resigned tonight, sounding a massive alarm,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is pure chaos that leaves the country unprepared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRFK, Jr is increasingly becoming a liability for the White House,\u201d Dr Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University, observed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a wholesale destruction of leadership at the CDC. The newly confirmed Director is out,\u201d Dr Ashish Jha, the Biden administration\u2019s coronavirus response coordinator, wrote<\/a>. \u201cMost of the top leaders who run key centers have resigned en masse. Total implosion. All because of [Secretary Kennedy\u2019s] leadership. What a complete disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n