Dr. Susan Monarez, who was sworn in as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 31, is being ousted, in keeping with three sources conversant in the state of affairs who spoke on the situation that they not be named as a result of they weren’t approved to share the data.
Her departure leaves the company leaderless at a deadly time.
Morale, which was already low after deep workers cuts this spring, plummeted after a gunman opened fireplace on the company’s essential campus in Atlanta on August 8, pocking the buildings with a whole lot of bullet holes and killing DeKalb County police officer David Rose. Shortly afterward, an additional 600 workers received official termination notices.
The US Department of Health and Human Services mentioned in a post on X on Wednesday, “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. [HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] 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 story was first reported by the Washington Post.
Monarez was President Donald Trump’s second choose to guide the CDC; the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon was withdrawn in March after White House officers privately voiced issues about his feedback expressing skepticism about vaccines.
She was the primary CDC director to be confirmed by the Senate, and her tenure was the shortest of any within the company’s historical past.
Monarez was principal deputy director and appearing director on the CDC from January to March. She has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology however is not a medical physician, making her the primary CDC director since the 1950s to not have a scientific background.
Monarez’s tenure in authorities spans Republican and Democratic administrations. Before coming to the CDC, she was deputy director for the Advance Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, and was founding director of the Center for Innovation on the Health Resources and Services Administration. She held different management positions on the Department of Homeland Security and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
In a news release the day of her swearing-in, Kennedy mentioned that Monarez had “unimpeachable scientific credentials” and that he had full confidence in her capacity to revive Americans’ belief within the company.
“It is a great honor to join Secretary Kennedy and his HHS leadership team,” Monarez mentioned within the information launch. “I consider it a privilege to work alongside the public servants at CDC. Together we will strengthen and modernize the nation’s public health preparedness and response through science and innovation. We will work every day at CDC to Make America Healthy Again.”
Former CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Nirav Shah mentioned Wednesday that Monarez’s ouster “is another example of the chaotic leadership we’ve seen under Secretary Kennedy, and in times of increasing public health threats, stable leadership matters.”
“The instability we’re seeing at CDC will not help making Americans healthy again.”
This is a growing story and will likely be up to date.