RFK Jr ‘weaponizing public health’ and ‘putting millions of American lives at risk’, ousted CDC director’s lawyers say Susan Monarez was removed from her position as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday without being told why she was fired, her lawyers said in a statement.
“First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk”, her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement posted on social media.
“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez 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.”
“This is not about one official,” the lawyers added. “It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science. The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within.”
The Department of Health and Human Services offered no explanation when it announced in an unsigned social media post that Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate as CDC director and sworn in by Kennedy just last month, was no longer in charge of the public health agency.
.@CDCMonarez is a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials. I have full confidence in her ability to restore the @CDCgov’s role as the most trusted authority in public health and to strengthen our nation’s readiness to confront infectious diseases and… https://t.co/4ADo2vgVv8
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 1, 2025
Sources “who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution”, told the New York Times reports that Monarez had objected to sweeping changes to the panel of experts who advise the agency on vaccine policy made by Donald Trump’s anti-vaccine health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
An administration official also told the Times that Kennedy had summoned Monarez to his office on Monday and demanded that she resign. After she refused to do so, she called Dr Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the Senate health committee. Kennedy then accused Monarez of “being a leaker” and said that she would be fired.
Hours before Monarez left the agency, Kennedy hailed decisions by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday revoking the emergency use authorization for the Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax that CDC experts estimate saved 3.2 million lives in the United States.
Vaccines from the three manufacturers are now authorized by the FDA only for people who are 65 and older, or younger people with an underlying medical condition that puts them at risk for severe disease.
Even those that qualify for the vaccines will only be able to get them in the US if the advisory panel, reshaped by Kennedy to include Covid vaccine opponents, votes to approve them.