CDC director pushed out; flood of top resignations follow

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.”

The post went on to say Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has full confidence that the CDC “who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

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.”

Houry’s 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. “I’m stunned how fast this all happened.”

The departures come at a tumultuous time for the agency.

On Aug. 8, a gunman shattered windows of six buildings of the CDC campus in Atlanta. A police officer died in the shooting. Several days after the shooting, Monarez sought to reassure staffers during a virtual meeting.

“We know that misinformation can be dangerous,” she said during the meeting, according to a transcript obtained by NBC News. “Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust. We need to rebuild the trust together.”

The CDC employee said that although Monarez hadn’t been in leadership for long, it “seemed like she was a fairly strong advocate for CDC employees. She was the only one to take the shooting seriously.”

President Donald Trump has not made any public statements about the shooting.

Last Friday, Monarez canceled a meeting with CDC staff members that had been scheduled for Monday. The focus of the meeting was going to be safety concerns and security enhancements after the shooting.

“Unfortunately, we need to postpone Monday’s event for an HHS meeting that I have been asked to attend in person in DC,” Monarez wrote in an email to CDC staff members seen by NBC News.

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 CDC’s 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. Trump’s 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.