As per a post by Wall Street Journal, Susan Monarez, the newly elected director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is being ousted weeks after she was confirmed to lead the public health agency.
Monarez, upon becoming the CDC director became the first ever non-physician to lead the CDC since the year 1953. The scientist had been serving as the acting director of CDC since January 2025. She was sworn in as the director of the organisation on July 31st.
The HHS has not officially responded on matters of Monarez’s dismissal.
iting several anonymous CDC employees, the newspaper reported that Monarez on Friday canceled an agency-wide call that had been scheduled for Monday.
ALL ABOUT MONAREZ
Before leading the CDC, she served as the deputy director of ARPA-H, a governmental agency that funds cutting-edge biomedical and health research.
At ARPA-H, she helped allocate funding for rapid disease detection technologies, AI-based diagnostic tools, and groundbreaking approaches to address behavioural health and maternal care inequities.
Monarez holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Monarez was the second person nominated by the Trump administration for the CDC director role. In March, President Trump withdrew his first nominee, former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon, just hours before his confirmation hearing. Weldon is a close ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Since taking office, Kennedy has made several major changes to vaccine policy. In May, he withdrew the federal recommendation for COVID-19 shots for pregnant women and healthy children.
In June, he fired all members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which helps decide how vaccines should be used and who should get them. He replaced the group with new advisers, including others who are also critical of vaccines.
Kennedy made many of these decisions while the CDC was still waiting for Monarez to be confirmed. He continued to act on vaccine policy even after her confirmation. Her removal comes on the same day Kennedy announced new rules for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility.
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