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CDC head Susan Monarez has been forced out of her role weeks after being confirmed by the Senate in a move that further deepens the turmoil inside the beleaguered public health agency.

News of her ouster was first reported by The Washington Post, which spoke with several Trump administration officials. Ars Technica also reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which at first declined to comment. It soon pointed to a post on the department’s official X account, which said:

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 elaborate further on why Monarez was ousted. According to The Washington Post, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known anti-vaccine advocate, had been pressuring Monarez to back away from the COVID-19 vaccines. He reportedly wanted her to rescind approvals of the vaccines, but she refused to do so without consulting the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees first. Kennedy then asked her to resign, saying she had not supported the agenda of President Trump.

Monarez refused to resign. She instead reached out to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La. ), who had facilitated Kennedy’s own Senate confirmation earlier this year by receiving assurances from him. Cassidy resisted Kennedy’s demands, and the pair came to blows. After that, several administration officials told Monarez that she would have to resign or she would be fired.

Monarez’s lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, made a statement on social media saying that Monarez had not resigned, nor had she received an official letter of dismissal from the White House. “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” the statement said. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.” Zaid later confirmed to Ars Technica that Monarez had not received any official termination notice as of 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27.

A Long Road to Disaster

Monarez had only just been confirmed in late July. It was a small victory: The 51–47 vote came along strict party lines, but it made her the first CDC director to be subject to Senate confirmation ever, after a 2022 law made it mandatory. Kennedy himself presided over her swearing-in on July 31, and he told her he was “proud” of her “unimpeachable scientific credentials.”

Monarez’s background is extensive. She earned a PhD in microbiology and immunology and served as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in the Biden administration. Before that, she worked at 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 had also served as acting director of the CDC earlier this year, before stepping down to make way for Trump’s formal nomination.

Monarez was well-respected among public health experts. Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University said she was “a loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism.” Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Association, called her “a scientist first and a true talent for management.”

Her brief term as CDC head was marred by deep trouble inside the agency. The CDC has lost hundreds of staff through layoffs and buyouts, while a number of its programs have been cut or rendered impotent. Kennedy himself has not helped matters, saying the COVID-19 vaccines were “the deadliest vaccine ever made” and calling the CDC “a cesspool of corruption.”

A week before Monarez was ousted, tragedy struck the agency when a man radicalized by vaccine misinformation shot up the CDC campus. The assailant discharged around 500 rounds and hit six different CDC buildings with around 200 of them. One local police officer was killed, and several staff had to flee for their lives. The shooter had attributed vaccines to his own health problems and said he had attacked the CDC for that reason.

Monarez’s ouster seems to have only worsened the situation. Stat News has confirmed that three top officials have also resigned: Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer, Deb Houry; and Demetre Daskalakis, who headed the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In a parting message, Daskalakis wrote, “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Houry’s goodbye letter said that science must “never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

Hours before, Politico had reported that Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, had resigned as well.

All told, the string of resignations, along with Monarez’s departure, has sent the agency reeling. To many, both inside and outside the agency, this is one of the CDC’s low points, a fall from the pastime of evidence-based public health into interference, resignations, and a crisis of trust as the nation faces a number of growing public health problems.