Washington (AFP) โ The Trump administration confirmed Wednesday it had fired the head of the top US public health agency after she refused to step down during a standoff with vaccine skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The escalating dispute over Kennedy's sweeping overhaul of US vaccine policy also led to five other senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcing their resignations, according to a union representing some of the agency's workers.
Susan Monarez, a health scientist and longtime civil servant, had been the CDC's head for less than a month when Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on X that she "is no longer director."
But Monarez's lawyers said she would not step down because she had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House regarding her dismissal.
The White House later confirmed that Monarez had been fired.
"As her attorney's statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an emailed statement to AFP.
"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," he added.
However, her lawyers said she "was notified tonight by a White House staffer in the personnel office that she was fired."
"As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her," the lawyers said in a statement sent to AFP.
"For this reason, we reject the notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director.
In an earlier statement, the lawyers accused Kennedy of "weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk."
The Washington Post, which first reported Monarez's dismissal, said Kennedy pressured her to resign after she refused to commit to supporting his vaccination policy changes.
In the aftermath, five high-ranking CDC officials emailed resignations, according to a union representing more than 2,000 CDC workers.
"Many felt forced to walk away from the jobs they loved because politics left them no choice," the AFGE Local 2883 union said in a statement, adding: "Vaccines save lives."
"Enough is enough," said Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned as director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
"I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health," he wrote on X.
The CDC's chief medical officer Debra Houry and Daniel Jernigan, director of the agency's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, were also among those who resigned, according to US media citing notes sent to staff.
Since taking office, RFK Jr, as he is known, has overhauled US vaccine policy, dismissing renowned immunization experts, restricting access to Covid-19 shots and slashing funding for the development of new vaccines.
Such measures are predominantly against scientific consensus, and have been criticized by outside experts.
After earning US Senate confirmation for the top CDC job, Monarez was sworn in by Kennedy on July 31.
The departure of Monarez comes amid a crisis at the Atlanta-based CDC, which was the target of an armed attack in early August by a man who reportedly blamed the Covid vaccine for an unspecified illness.
Hundreds of health agency employees and former employees subsequently signed an open letter condemning Kennedy's actions and accusing the health secretary of putting people at risk by spreading misinformation, particularly about vaccines.