Overview

• HHS and the White House announced that Susan Monarez is no longer CDC director, less than a month after her July 31 swearing‑in, making hers the agency’s shortest tenure.
• Monarez’s lawyers say she neither resigned nor received a termination notice and argue she was targeted after refusing to carry out what they called unscientific directives and to dismiss health experts.
• Chief medical officer Debra Houry, infectious‑disease center head Daniel Jernigan, and immunization chief Demetre Daskalakis also departed, with Daskalakis condemning the ongoing politicization and instrumentalization of public health.
• The Washington Post and the New York Times report that Monarez clashed with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy and that he threatened to fire her, accounts not addressed in detail by HHS.
• Kennedy has rolled back vaccine initiatives this year, including cutting federal support for mRNA vaccine development and removing the CDC’s immunization advisory panel, moves that have drawn sharp criticism from researchers.