White House Fires CDC Director Susan Monarez Less Than a Month After She Was Sworn In
On August 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced in a social media post that Susan Monarez was no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That night, the White House confirmed that she had been fired. Monarez had been sworn in on July 31, less than a month earlier, making her the shortest-serving director in the 79-year history of the agency.
The department's post said Monarez was no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, thanked her for her dedicated service to the American people, and said Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had full confidence in his team at the CDC. Her attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, responded with a statement saying that when Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda, and for that she had been targeted; the statement said she had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she had been fired, and that, as a person of integrity devoted to science, she would not resign.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that night that, as her attorneys' statement made abundantly clear, Monarez was not aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again, and that since she had refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House had terminated her from her position with the CDC. Her attorneys later said Monarez was notified that night by a White House staffer in the personnel office that she was fired, but they rejected the notification as legally deficient, arguing that a Senate-confirmed official can be fired only by the president himself.
In the same week, at least four senior CDC officials resigned: Debra Houry, the deputy director and chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
The Washington Post first reported that Secretary Kennedy had pressed Monarez to commit to supporting his changes to vaccine policy, including pre-approving recommendations from the vaccine advisory committee, and to fire senior officials, and that she was asked to resign after she refused. The Department of Health and Human Services gave no reason for Monarez's departure and did not address the resignations.
Monarez, 50, was the CDC's 21st director. She had served as acting director since January, was nominated by President Trump in March, and was confirmed by the Senate 51 to 47 on July 29, the first CDC director to go through Senate confirmation under a 2023 law. She was sworn in by Secretary Kennedy on July 31.
(Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于佐治亚州亚特兰大的美国疾病控制与预防中心总部 Edward R. Roybal 园区主入口，画面右侧为总部大楼、中央为疾控中心标牌。Daniel Mayer 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The main entrance of the Edward R. Roybal Campus, headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, with the headquarters building at right and the CDC sign at center. Photo by Daniel Mayer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
