California Hires Former C.D.C. Officials Who Criticized Trump Administration
Source: New York Times
Dec. 14, 2025, 7:58 p.m. ET
Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to announce on Monday that California has hired two former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who accused the Trump administration of abandoning scientific standards. One is Susan Monarez, a former director of the C.D.C., who was fired by the White House in late August after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to remove her from her position and she resisted leaving. The other is Dr. Debra Houry, a former chief medical officer of the C.D.C., who quit partly in protest over the firing of Dr. Monarez. Both will now serve as consultants for the California Department of Public Health.
Mr. Newsom has been working to elevate his national profile as a leading Democratic voice against President Trump, and to position himself for a possible 2028 presidential run. He has tried to make California a Democratic bulwark on the West Coast, and has repeatedly countered moves by the Trump administration.
Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry gave notable testimony at a tense Senate hearing in September in which Dr. Monarez said she had refused Mr. Kennedy’s demands that she fire top scientists at the agency and approve new vaccine recommendations before seeing evidence to support them.
Dr. Monarez had been at the agency for less than a month when Mr. Kennedy abruptly dismissed her. Dr. Houry was an agency veteran who rose through the ranks to oversee all of the C.D.C.’s centers. She was often the only C.D.C. official included in the Trump administration’s plans for reshaping the agency.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/us/california-newsom-cdc-trump.html
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