Overview
- The Senate approved Monarez’s nomination 51–47 along party lines, making her the first CDC director to require Senate confirmation under a 2023 amendment to the Public Health Service Act.
- Monarez holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology and is the first non-physician to head the CDC since 1953 after senior roles at ARPA-H, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council.
- She inherits an agency facing White House proposals to cut nearly $3.6 billion from its budget and an HHS-enforced layoff plan that eliminated 2,400 CDC positions.
- HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and installed vaccine-skeptical appointees, upending established immunization guidance.
- Monarez steps into her permanent role as the U.S. grapples with its worst measles outbreak since 2000 and mounting bird flu cases, demanding a swift public health response.