Monarez, ousted CDC Director, refused to fire top CDC leaders, 'rubber-stamp' vaccine changes, confidante says

[In It to Win It]

Susan Monarez, the newly ousted director of the CDC, refused to fire top agency leaders and sign off on changes to vaccines from the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked panel of vaccine advisers, according to Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting CDC director.

Besser told reporters at a press conference Thursday that he spoke to Monarez at 1 p.m. Wednesday, hours before HHS posted on the social media site X that she was “no longer director” of the agency. Besser said Monarez was asked to resign but told him she didn’t plan to.

“She said that there were two things she would never do in the job,” Besser said. “She said she was asked to do both of those, one in terms of firing her leadership, who are talented civil servants like herself, and the other was to rubber stamp [vaccine] recommendations that flew in the face of science, and she was not going to do either of those things.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/28/monarez-cdc-vaccines-rfk-trump-00533358

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. MaddowBlog-As chaos grips the CDC and its leadership, senator calls for RFK Jr.'s resignation

As one former public health official summarized, “The weakening of the CDC leaves us less safe and more vulnerable as a country.”

As chaos grips the CDC, its director is fired after less than a month, and our public-health infrastructure unravels, @murray.senate.gov had a compelling pitch:

“We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground." www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-28T13:03:38.619Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/cdc-susan-monarez-rfk-jr-resignation-rcna227699

Then, later Wednesday evening, NBC News reported:

The White House fired back shortly afterward, formally terminating Monarez. ‘As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC,’ White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

The statement in question from Monarez’s attorneys noted that she’d been “targeted” after she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts ... protecting the public over serving a political agenda.”.....

The developments, however, were just the beginning, not the end, of a dramatic shake-up at an agency that used to be celebrated as the global leader in its field. In fact, as NBC News’ report added, Monarez’s ouster “sparked a near-immediate leadership exodus from the CDC.” The resignations that followed Monarez’s firing included:

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
Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology

Daskalakis, in particular, released an unrestrained resignation letter, which read in part, “I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people.”.....

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, meanwhile, directed her attention toward the one official who appears to be chiefly responsible for the crisis in the public health community: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“Director Monarez is not the problem, RFK Jr. is,” Murray said. “If there are any adults left in the White House, it’s well past time they face reality and fire RFK Jr. He is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation — leaving us unprepared for the next deadly pandemic and snuffing out potential cures while he’s at it.”

The senator concluded, “We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground — he must be fired. I hope my Republican colleagues who have come to regret their vote to confirm RFK Jr. will join me in calling for his immediate termination from office.”