Susan Monarez, the longtime federal government scientist who was confirmed as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in late July, is leaving her position just weeks into her tenure.
The Department for Health and Human Services confirmed Monarez’s departure 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 dedicated service to the American people,” the agency wrote, noting that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy “has full confidence in his team” at the CDC.
HHS did not give a reason for Monarez’s exit. The agency did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.
The Washington Post first broke the news. The Post reported, citing people familiar with the conversations, that Kennedy pushed for Monarez to resign after she said she wouldn’t commit to supporting the Administration’s efforts to change coronavirus vaccine policies without first speaking with her advisers. Monarez declined to immediately offer her resignation, according to the outlet, but was instructed to do so or be fired by Administration officials after she angered Kennedy further by seeking support from Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Under the leadership of Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, HHS has moved to notably shift the country’s vaccine policies. On Wednesday, the FDA approved COVID-19 shots with new restrictions, limiting eligibility for the vaccine to groups deemed high-risk. Earlier in August, HHS said it would begin winding down the development of mRNA vaccines at an agency focused on developing countermeasures to public health emergencies, despite those vaccines having been credited by health experts with saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At least three top officials resigned from the CDC following Monarez’s firing, according to STAT and the Guardian. The officials include Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry; and Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health,” Daskalakis wrote in an email, according to the initial report from STAT.
“I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency,” Houry additionally wrote, adding that science should “never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”
Monarez was nominated to head the CDC by President Donald Trump following the withdrawal of his first pick, former Republican congressman David Weldon.
She was the first director of the CDC to be confirmed by the Senate, securing the upper chamber’s approval in a party-line vote, and the only non-physician to lead the agency. When she was sworn into her role on July 31st, Kennedy called Monarez “a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials.”
“I have full confidence in her ability to restore the CDC’s role as the most trusted authority in public health and to strengthen our nation’s readiness to confront infectious diseases and biosecurity threats,” Kennedy said at the time. Â
Before her confirmation as CDC Director, Monarez served as Acting Director for the agency and Deputy Director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
Her departure comes shortly after a shooting on the CDC Atlanta campus on August 8th, which killed DeKalb County police officer David Rose.
Monarez is not the first Trump Administration official to be dismissed shortly after starting their role. Earlier this month, Billy Long was removed as Internal Revenue Service chief two months after he was confirmed. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent took over as acting commissioner of the agency.
During President Trump’s first term, several top officials were removed after brief stints in his Administration in the initial months after he entered the White House, including Anthony Scaramucci, who was the White House Communications Director for just ten days.
Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn in 2017 was asked to resign from his post after 24 days, the shortest tenure for anyone in that position.
