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Susan Monarez was forced out of her position as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just weeks after the Senate confirmed her, in the latest sign of turmoil for the beleaguered public health agency.

The first news of her ouster was from The Washington Post, which reported the news based on several officials within the Trump administration. Ars Technica then reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which the CDC is part of, which then pointed Ars to a post on the department’s official X account, which read:

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 diseases at home and abroad.”

There was no indication as to why she was removed in that statement. The Washington Post said that the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken anti-vaccine advocate, had repeatedly “badgered Monarez” about her support for COVID-19 vaccines, asking her to rescind approvals for them. She refused, telling Kennedy she could not do so without the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees reviewing them first. Kennedy then told her she had to resign for not supporting Trump.

Monarez, however, did not resign. Instead, she reached out to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La. ), who had played a key role in Kennedy’s own confirmation in the Senate earlier this year, extracting some promises from him before backing his nomination. Cassidy told Kennedy he was overstepping, which led to a shouting match. Following that, the administration officials told Monarez she would have to either resign or be fired.

Her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, put out a statement on social media saying that Monarez “has not resigned, nor has she been provided with any official notice of termination from the White House.” “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” they said. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.” Zaid later told Ars Technica that as of 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27, Monarez had still not been sent any official termination notice.

A Public Health Agency at a Breaking Point

Monarez’s Senate confirmation in late July had been a relief for the CDC. She was confirmed in a 51–47 vote on party lines and took office on July 31 to become the first CDC director in history to undergo Senate confirmation, after a 2022 law made it a requirement. Kennedy himself administered the oath, stating that “her unimpeachable scientific credentials” had been reviewed during the confirmation process, and that she would be a “significant positive step in restoring” the CDC’s reputation.

Her background was both deep and widely respected. She has a PhD in microbiology and immunology and had most recently been deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) during the Biden administration. She had also been with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council, as well as served as the CDC’s acting director earlier in the year before resigning to be formally nominated by Trump.

Public health experts had hailed her as an expert in the field. Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University said that Monarez “is a loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism,” while Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association, said “she’s a phenomenal researcher and really, really strong manager.”

But her removal after a short few weeks came against a backdrop of problems for the agency. The CDC has lost hundreds of staff members in recent weeks through layoffs and buyouts, while many of its programs have been cut or curtailed. Kennedy himself has further inflamed the situation by claiming COVID-19 vaccines are “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” and that the CDC is “a cesspool of corruption.”

On August 8, tragedy struck the agency, with a gunman radicalized by vaccine misinformation opening fire on the CDC campus. The shooter fired nearly 500 rounds, with about 200 actually hitting six different CDC buildings. One local police officer was killed, while terrified CDC staff hid from the shooter. The gunman had also blamed vaccines for his own health problems, and specifically targeted the CDC.

The news of Monarez’s apparent ouster has further shaken the agency. Stat News reported that three high-ranking CDC officials had resigned, including Daniel Jernigan, the agency’s National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases director; CDC Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry; and Demetre Daskalakis, who had been leading the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In his goodbye post, Daskalakis said he could no longer serve “because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Houry’s post also emphasized that “science should never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

Earlier that day, Politico also reported that Jennifer Layden, the CDC’s Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology director, had also resigned.

Taken together, the turn of events in recent days has brought the CDC to a low point, with many more senior staff members resigning than in previous administrations. The public health agency is beset by resignations, politicization, and an ever-greater loss of trust at a time when public health crises are only growing.