US health agency chief fired after she refused to step down, accuses RFK of ‘weaponising public health’

WASHINGTON: Within a month after being appointed as the Director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez was fired after she refused to step down from her position despite attempts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, The New York Times reported.

The New York Times, citing Susan Monarez’s lawyers, reported that she received an email from a spokesman for President Trump, Kush Desai, stating that she had been terminated.

“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again”, Desai wrote. “Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC”, the mail added.

Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious…

— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) August 27, 2025

Monarez’s lawyers asserted in a statement that her removal is about “the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicisation of science. The attack on Dr Monarez is a warning to every American: Our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within”.

This came after the clash between Robert F Kennedy Jr and Monarez, which burst into public view on Wednesday after the Department of Health and Human Services announced on X that Monarez was “no longer” director of the CDC. Later, Monarez’s lawyers said, “She has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign”.

Kennedy and his department, they said, “have set their sights on weaponising public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.” As reported by The New York Times, Monarez and Kennedy have differences over vaccine policy, according to an administration official who is familiar with the events. (ANI)