The White House announced on Wednesday that CDC Director Susan Monarez has been dismissed, marking her departure less than a month after being nominated by Trump and sworn into office. Simultaneously, four senior CDC officials have resigned amid escalating tensions over vaccine policies and public health directives from their parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The current wave of CDC executive dismissals, voluntary resignations of key officials, anti-vaccine controversies, and Trump administration-led budget cuts, combined with the "weaponization" of public health, have created a dramatic confrontation between science and politics within the US public health system.

CDC Director Monarez has questioned the White House's dismissal decision and criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s directives as unscientific. Four senior CDC officials had already resigned due to vaccine policy disputes, misinformation concerns, and the politicization of public health, all occurring shortly after Kennedy, a prominent "anti-vaccine advocate," began adjusting the government's vaccine policies.

Trump's Senate-confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is implementing significant changes to federal vaccine policy, including withdrawing federal recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and healthy children in May, and dismissing the entire CDC professional vaccine advisory committee in June, replacing them with his personally selected medical advisors, including other notable anti-vaccine activists.

One departing senior CDC official stated that the vaccine recommendations currently being implemented by the CDC are putting America's young people and pregnant women at widespread risk.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Wednesday evening that Susan Monarez was not "aligned with President Trump's Making America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda." Desai stated that since she "had notified HHS leadership of her intention to resign but refused to resign, the White House has removed Monarez from her position at the CDC."

Monarez's attorneys Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell denied she had resigned or been fired by the White House, adding in a statement that "as a person of integrity and loyalty to science, she would not choose to resign." Her lawyers accused Kennedy of targeting her for dismissal because she refused to support "unscientific directives" and dismissed CDC health experts.

CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry and Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis have announced their resignations. In resignation letters shared with media, they attributed their departure to rising health misinformation about vaccines, attacks on science, the "weaponization" of public health, and attempts to cut the agency's budget and policy influence.

Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Daniel Jernigan also resigned within days after the agency reported the first US case of human "screwworm" related to ongoing outbreaks in Central America. According to NBC News, CDC Director of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology Jen Layden has also resigned.

"Recently, the exaggeration of vaccine risks and the increase in misinformation has led to irreversible loss of life, as evidenced by the highest number of measles cases in the US in 30 years and violent attacks on our institution," Houry wrote in her formal resignation letter.

Additionally, budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration and Kennedy's plans to reorganize the agency will inevitably damage the agency's ability to respond to these challenges. The White House seeks to cut the CDC's budget by nearly $3.6 billion, reducing its overall budget to just about $4 billion in 2026. Kennedy's layoff plan announced earlier this year eliminated about 2,400 CDC employees, although about 700 were later rehired.

"Due to the continued weaponization of public health, I can no longer continue in this position," wrote Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. He declined to comment on this report.

HHS officials have not provided any reasons for CDC Director Susan Monarez's departure or the White House's dismissal of her, nor have they responded to requests for comment regarding the resignation incidents.

"Susan Monarez will no longer serve as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedication to the American people," the department said in a post on its official X account.

Under Kennedy's leadership, the CDC faces increasingly severe challenges, including a shooting incident at its Atlanta headquarters earlier this month. The union representing CDC employees said this incident "exacerbated the threats, neglect and stigmatization that CDC employees have experienced for months."

Former CDC official Fiona Havers, who resigned in June over vaccine policy, described the recent series of resignations as a "devastating blow" to the CDC, adding that some of the departing leaders served as "buffers between CDC career scientists and attacks on public health by RFK Jr. and this administration, and without them the US medical and health system will face a more severe situation."

In a sharply worded resignation letter posted on X Wednesday evening and addressed to Houry, Daskalakis emphasized that the CDC's vaccination recommendations are putting America's young people and pregnant women at significant risk and firmly criticized Kennedy's decision to dismiss the expert committee. He emphasized that the health agency's policies would return America to the "survival of the fittest" era before vaccine promotion, thereby endangering national welfare and public safety.

Meanwhile, "anti-vaccine advocate" Kennedy announced further adjustments to COVID-19 vaccination eligibility on Wednesday. As a federal government scientist, Susan Monarez was nominated by Trump earlier this year to serve as CDC Director, confirmed by the US Senate on July 29, and sworn in by Kennedy on July 31. She was the second person Trump nominated for this important health system position.

In March, Trump withdrew his nomination of former Republican Congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon, also a Kennedy ally, just hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing. Susan Monarez's statements at her confirmation hearing (she said she had not seen evidence of a link between vaccines and autism) contrasted with Kennedy, who has promoted this debunked connection claim.

Kennedy has launched an investigation into this condition throughout the US medical and health departments and said Wednesday that there would be "news soon" on related matters.

"We will make some important announcements in September about vaccine-caused autism, involving changes we will make that will have a huge impact on autism-related effects," he emphasized at an event attended with Texas Governor Gregg Abbott.