The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said CDC Director Susan Monarez would no longer work at the agency, and shortly afterward four key officials at the agency announced they would step down from their posts.
Monarez is fighting the HHS Secretary’s efforts to push her out, and her attorney argues that the only person that can fire her is President Trump. A source close to Monarez defended her against the attacks coming from the administration.
“I think Susan was a pick for a role that very few people wanted to take on because of the difficulty,” they told The Hill. “And that she really stepped into it as a good American that knew the nation needed leadership. And she was very clear about where she is on issues related to science, on vaccine process, administrative process, supporting agency staff.”
The departures have shaken many within the CDC and broader scientific community who now fear for the future of public health.
“These are uncharted waters,” said a top CDC official during a Thursday meeting of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). “But we will do our best to navigate, to move forward, to do the work that we think needs to be done in the way that it needs to be done.”
NCEZID Director Daniel Jernigan was among the CDC leaders who submitted their resignations on Wednesday.
Public health experts fear the departures have now weakened the agency and illustrate how “blind political orthodoxy and obedience” are more important to the Trump administration than studying science and making policy based on the best available scientific evidence.
Several of the leaders who resigned, including Jernigan and Demetre Daskalakis, who was director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, specialized in infectious diseases.
Their resignations are a reflection of Kennedy’s agenda as he had said he planned to shift focus away from infectious diseases and look more toward chronic illnesses.
