**Breaking Details** CDC Director pushed out (?) plus four other high level officials resign in response...
Note: while the HHS x-account is reporting her ouster--along with NYT and WAPO, she has hired Abe Lowell as her attorney and intends to fight it. (reports an hour ago)
https://www.aol.com/news/cdc-director-pushed-just-weeks-214250710.html
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several top officials are departing in a massive shake-up at the embattled agency.
Susan Monarez, the CDC director, was fired just shy of a month into her role. At least four other officials have also submitted their resignations.
Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a post on the Department of Health and Human Services' X account said Wednesday. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.
--snip--
The Washington Post first reported her ouster.
Four other longtime top CDC officials submitted their resignations, according to letters reviewed by NBC News: Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC's chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.
In his resignation letter, Daskalakis wrote, I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health.
Hourys resignation letter spoke about the continued spread of misinformation around vaccines.
Recently, the overstating of risks [of vaccines] and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of US measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency, Houry wrote.
CDC staffers said they were astounded by the developments.
These guys are the best in the business. They know their stuff, said a CDC staffer who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. Im stunned how fast this all happened.
--snip--
Dr. Mandy Cohen, a former CDC director under President Joe Biden, said: We lost exceptional leaders who have served over many decades and many administrations. The weakening of the CDC leaves us less safe and more vulnerable as a country.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in a statement that the departures are a serious loss for America.
The loss of experienced, world-class infectious disease experts at CDC is directly related to the failed leadership of extremists currently in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, he said.
Osterholm is launching the Vaccine Integrity Project as a potential alternative to the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In June, Kennedy fired all 17 ACIP members and replaced them with his own picks, including several Covid vaccine skeptics.
With Monarez's firing, the agency returns to the leaderless state it has been in for the majority of the new Trump administration. Trumps original pick for director, Dr. David Weldon, was pulled from consideration hours before his confirmation hearing in March. Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, had a history of questioning vaccine safety.
Monarez briefly served as the agency's acting director before she was nominated in Weldon's place.