CDC Director Fired After Refusing Kennedy Orders

The CDC is basically in complete chaos right now. The White House fired Director Susan Monarez on Wednesday, and several other top officials quit the same day. It's turning into a real mess at the nation's top public health agency.

Monarez lasted all of 27 days on the job before getting the boot. She was confirmed by the Senate back in July and sworn in by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on July 31st. By August 27th, she was out.

According to Richard Besser, who used to run the CDC under both Bush and Obama, this whole situation represents an "extraordinary and systematic dismantling of the very top of our nation's public health system." That's not exactly encouraging language from someone who knows how these agencies are supposed to work.

What Actually Happened

Besser says Monarez told him she got targeted because she wouldn't do two things Kennedy wanted. First, she refused to fire senior CDC leaders. Second, she wouldn't automatically approve recommendations from Kennedy's handpicked vaccine advisory panel.

Monarez's attorneys put it pretty bluntly—she was fired because she wouldn't "rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated public health experts."

During a phone call on August 27th, Monarez apparently told Besser there were two lines she wouldn't cross. She wouldn't do anything illegal, and she wouldn't go against science. When Kennedy asked her to do both of those things, she knew her days were numbered.

"She was not going to do either of those things," Besser said.

The Vaccine Panel Controversy

Here's some important background. Kennedy fired all 17 members of a key vaccine advisory committee back in June. Then he appointed eight new members, including some vaccine skeptics, to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

That's the group that makes recommendations about which vaccines Americans should get and when. Having vaccine skeptics on a vaccine advisory panel is like having people who don't believe in fire safety on the fire department.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during a briefing that Trump himself fired Monarez after she refused to step down when Kennedy asked her to resign. They've named Jim O'Neill, one of Kennedy's deputies at HHS, as acting CDC director.

"The president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission," Leavitt said.

Other Key Officials Bail Out

Monarez wasn't the only one who decided this wasn't worth it. Several other important CDC officials announced their resignations the same day.

Demetre Daskalakis, who oversaw immunization and respiratory diseases, posted his resignation letter on social media. He said he couldn't be part of an "environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health."

Daskalakis also mentioned that recent changes to adult and children's immunization schedules "threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people." That's pretty strong language from someone whose job was literally protecting public health.

He also said he and his staff never got a chance to brief Kennedy on important health challenges like measles, bird flu, and respiratory virus season. "I am not sure who (Kennedy) is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us," he wrote.

CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry and National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Director Daniel Jernigan also quit.

What Kennedy Says About All This

Kennedy has been pretty open about thinking federal health agencies are too cozy with pharmaceutical companies. During an interview with Fox & Friends on August 28th, he said "The CDC has problems."

He specifically criticized an agency website that lists vaccines among the 10 greatest advances in medicine. Kennedy said there's "a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency."

State health departments and major medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics have been criticizing Kennedy since May, when he announced plans to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children.

What This Means Going Forward

Besser pointed out that the CDC has traditionally been the "quarterback" of America's public health system, making key recommendations based on medical evidence. But with all this controversy and the exit of experienced scientists, other medical groups might need to step up and fill the gap.

"We are going to see other institutions fill the void," Besser said.

Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, called for oversight of these departures. He also asked a federal vaccine advisory panel to postpone its September 18th meeting to allow review of "serious allegations."

Kennedy is scheduled to face questions from the Senate Finance Committee on September 4th, so we'll probably get more details about what's really happening at the CDC.

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