The CDC’s senior staff are resigning in protest of RFK Jr & an ‘authoritarian leader’

I got my 2025-26 flu shot yesterday. I asked the pharmacist about when they’ll get the new covid boosters, and he had no idea. He also said that it was pretty likely that whenever they get the new boosters, they’ll be limited to seniors, and if people under-65 want them, they’ll have to pay out of pocket even with insurance. Absolutely insane. It’s one of the dumbest things Robert Kennedy Jr. has done as HHS Secretary, and let’s be clear, he’s done tons of dumb, evil and despicable things already. Speaking of, Kennedy tried to fire the CDC Director, which has led to a crazy amount of drama and CDC resignations this week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw a spree of surprise resignations on Wednesday night after a battle between Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the agency’s new director. Susan Monarez was ousted by The Department of Health & Human Services, which oversees the CDC, on Wednesday. Soon afterwards, she hit back through her lawyers, claiming she had not been fired and had no intention of resigning, accusing Kennedy of “weaponizing public health for political gain.”

She had been sworn into the role by Kennedy himself a month ago after being nominated by Trump. She was formally its acting director. Earlier, her lawyers said 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.” The White House later confirmed that she had been removed from her role.

“Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the C.D.C.,” Kush Desai, a spokesman for President Trump, told The New York Times. In another twist, Monarez’s legal team, Mark S. Zaid and Abbe Lowell, told the Daily Beast on Wednesday night that only the president can sack Monarez, and she believes she still remains in the role, despite the White House’s insistence.

“Our client was notified tonight by a White House staffer in the personnel office that she was fired,” the statement read. “As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her. For this reason, we reject the notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position.”

The inner turmoil has rocked the organization, with at least four top CDC leaders announcing their resignation shortly after Monarez’s apparent ouster. They include D.C.’s chief medical officer, Dr. Debra Houry; the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis; the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Dr. Daniel Jernigan; and the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology, Dr. Jen Layden, according to The New York Times. They joined Monarez in critiquing their former boss.

Monarez’s legal team accused vaccine skeptic Kennedy of “putting millions of lives at risk,” with the other CDC officials citing issues with the organization’s “unscientific” policies and promotion of health “misinformation.”

“The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader,” Daskalakis said. “Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc.”

[From The Daily Beast]

It has been abundantly clear for months that Kennedy and Trump are in agreement that a lot of Americans need to die of preventable illnesses and lack of care. That’s what the Medicaid cuts were about, as well as the pulled funding from mRNA vaccine research. Kennedy even played games with the flu shot! And now they’re firing doctors and scientists for simply NOT being wingnuts. I have so much respect for what Susan Monarez is doing too – pressing the issue, getting her lawyers involved, standing up to these a–holes and morons. It feels like the CDC officials resigning in protest hope that they’re making enough noise to rattle the Trump administration, the Congressional Republicans and the press. I’m not sure it will work though.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.