Susan Monarerez, the long -standing scientist of the federal government who was confirmed as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the end of July, leaves her post to only a few weeks in her mandate.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services confirmed the departure of Monarez in an X Post Wednesday evening.
“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her service devoted to the American people,” wrote the agency, noting that the HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, “has a fully confidence in his team” at the CDC.
HHS did not give a reason for the release of Monarez. The agency did not immediately respond to the request for time comments. The Washington Job first announced the news.
THE Job reported, citing people familiar with the conversations, which Kennedy pushed Monarez to resign after having said that she would not undertake to support the efforts of the administration to modify the policies of vaccine against the coronavirus without first speaking with his advisers. Monarez refused to immediately resign, according to the point of sale, but she was invited to do so or to be dismissed by administration officials after having made Kennedy angry by asking for the support of the Republican senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Under the direction of Kennedy, a leading vaccination skeptic, HHS has made several notable measures to move the policies of the country’s vaccines. On Wednesday, the FDA approved COVID-19 shots with new restrictions, limiting the eligibility for vaccine to high-risk groups. Earlier in August, HHS said that it would start to reduce the development of mRNA vaccines in an agency focused on the development of public health countermeasures, despite vaccines that have been credited by health experts to save millions of lives during the COVVI-19 pandemic.
According to Stat and The Guardian. Managers include Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for emerging zoonotic infectious diseases; Chief doctor Deb Houry; and Demeter Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
“I am no longer able to play in this role because of the current armament of public health,” wrote Daskalakis in an email, according to the initial stat report.
“I am committed to protecting the health of the public, but the changes in progress prevent me from continuing myself in my work as a head of the agency,” also wrote Housy, adding that science should “never be censored or subject to political interpretations”.
Monarez was appointed to lead the CDC by President Donald Trump after the withdrawal of his first choice, the former member of the Republican Congress David Weldon.
She was the first director of the CDC to be confirmed by the Senate, guaranteeing the approval of the upper room in an online vote of the party, and the only non-medicine to lead the agency. When she was sworn in in her role on July 31, Kennedy described Monarez “an expert in public health with inactive scientific references”.
“I have fully confidence in its ability to restore the role of the CDC as the most reliable authority in public health and to strengthen the will of our nation to face infectious diseases and threats of biosecurity,” said Kennedy at the time.
Before her confirmation as director of the CDC, Monarez was acting director of the agency and assistant director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
His departure occurs shortly after a shooting on the CDC Atlanta campus on August 8, who killed the county police officer David Rose.
Monarez is not the first person in charge of the Trump administration to be rejected shortly after the start of their role. Earlier this month, Billy Long was withdrawn as head of the internal revenue service two months after his confirmation. The secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent took office as an acting commissioner of the agency.
During the first term of President Trump, several senior officials were withdrawn after short stays in his administration in the first months after entering the White House, including Anthony Scaramucci, who was director of white house communications for only ten days.
Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn in 2017 was invited to resign from his post after 24 days, the shortest mandate for anyone in this position.
