CDC Director Susan Monarez Is Ousted Less Than a Month In as Four Top Officials Quit

On August 27, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the departure of CDC Director Susan Monarez, who had been sworn in on July 31 — the shortest tenure of any director in the agency's 79-year history. Her lawyers said she had "neither resigned nor been told she was fired," and stated that she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts." A White House spokesman said she was not aligned with the president's agenda and had declined to resign. Four senior officials resigned the same week: Deputy Director Debra Houry, emerging-diseases center head Daniel Jernigan, immunization center head Demetre Daskalakis, and data surveillance director Jennifer Layden.

The departures followed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s replacement of the entire membership of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee with appointees including vaccine skeptics. The CDC sets the childhood immunization schedule and directs outbreak response, and losing its confirmed director and four center-level leaders in one week stripped out most of the agency's senior scientific chain of command — weeks after a gunman attacked its Atlanta headquarters and killed a responding police officer.

The dispute over whether Monarez's removal was lawful, and over the vaccine directives at its center, carried into congressional testimony in September 2025.