In an extraordinary and unprecedented act of defiance, Dr. Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has refused to leave her post despite an order from the White House to resign. The move, which has been described by her lawyers as a “legally deficient” firing, has triggered a constitutional showdown between the nation’s top public health agency and the Trump administration.
The conflict, which escalated dramatically on Wednesday, began with a social media post from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stating that Monarez was “no longer director.” The White House later confirmed that Monarez had been “terminated” because she was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” and had refused to resign.
However, in a defiant statement, Monarez’s legal team fired back, arguing that the notice of her firing was “legally deficient” and that she remains the CDC director. Because Monarez was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, her lawyers argue that “only the president himself can fire her.”
The dramatic standoff is the result of a long-simmering conflict between Monarez, a career public health scientist, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine skeptic. According to reports from The Washington Post and The Associated Press, Monarez had repeatedly clashed with Kennedy over his attempts to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” Monarez, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, had publicly stated during her Senate confirmation hearing that “vaccines absolutely save lives,” a position that put her at direct odds with the new administration.
The public feud has sent shockwaves through the public health community and prompted the immediate resignations of at least four other top CDC officials in protest. “The CDC is being decapitated. This is an absolute disaster for public health,” said Dr. Robert Steinbrook of Public Citizen. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned as head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, wrote in his resignation letter that he was “unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality.”
For now, Monarez remains at her post, but her future is uncertain. This conflict, which marks the first time a Senate-confirmed CDC director has been fired, is a defining moment for an agency that has been increasingly politicized. It raises serious questions about the independence of scientific institutions and whether they can continue to serve the public good in an era of political polarization.