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Susan Monarez has been forced out of her newly confirmed role as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just weeks after her Senate confirmation in a move that represents another in a long line of shakeups for the beleaguered public health agency.

The first word came from The Washington Post, which said it had been tipped by multiple officials within the Trump administration. When Ars Technica subsequently asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for confirmation of the report, the agency instead directed us to a post it had published to its official X account:

Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov, who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

The post did not elaborate on why Monarez had been ousted from the post. But in The Washington Post’s account, Monarez had faced repeated pressure from her superior, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over her response to COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy reportedly pressured her to reverse approval of the vaccines, but she resisted doing so without first consulting the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees. Kennedy then asked her to resign for failing to back President Trump’s agenda.

Monarez refused, however, and instead reached out to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La. ), who had been instrumental in Kennedy’s own Senate confirmation earlier this year. At that time, Cassidy had secured a commitment from Kennedy not to create barriers within the CDC for scientists. But after Cassidy pushed back against Kennedy’s directive for Monarez to resign, administration officials then told Monarez she would either need to resign or be terminated.

In a statement posted to social media, lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said Monarez had not resigned, nor had she been given a formal termination notice by the White House. “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” the lawyers wrote in their statement. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.” Zaid later confirmed to Ars Technica that as of 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27, Monarez had yet to receive an official termination notice.

CDC Has Experienced a Host of Leadership Shake-Ups

Monarez was confirmed by the Senate in late July, an event that had been seen by some public health experts as a breakthrough. The vote was 51–47 along party lines. Monarez became the first CDC director subject to Senate confirmation, following a 2022 law requiring the confirmation process. Kennedy himself had sworn her into office on July 31, in a ceremony where he praised her “unimpeachable scientific credentials.” “I have every expectation that your tenure will re-establish CDC’s credibility as a science-based agency whose sole purpose is to serve the American people,” he said.

Monarez had an extensive résumé as well, one which won the respect of her colleagues. She has a PhD in microbiology and immunology, and before joining the CDC, she was deputy director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under the Biden administration. Monarez had previously held positions at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council. She had also briefly led the CDC as acting director earlier in the year before stepping down once Trump nominated her for the role.

Public health experts were largely positive about her appointment. Jennifer Nuzzo, with Brown University, praised her as a “loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism.” Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Association, said of her, “She is a very strong researcher and an effective and creative manager.”

The CDC has been battered in recent months, however, and Monarez’s brief tenure has ended with the agency in a state of crisis. In recent months, the CDC has lost hundreds of staff to layoffs and buyouts, while other programs have been curtailed or hobbled. Kennedy has also inflamed divisions by stoking tensions within the CDC over vaccines, including once calling COVID-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Kennedy himself has also described the CDC as a “cesspool of corruption.”

And on August 8, a gunman with a grudge against vaccines opened fire on the CDC campus, an act of violence that was the direct result of vaccine misinformation. The shooter, a man in his early 60s who had blamed vaccines for his own health issues, eventually fired nearly 500 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle. About 200 rounds hit six CDC buildings, with one police officer shot and killed. Office workers were rushed into lockdown as the man continued firing on the campus. He was eventually shot by police.

Stat News has since confirmed that three other high-ranking officials are also resigning, including Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, CDC’s Chief Medical Officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In his note of resignation, Daskalakis said he “cannot serve in a public health agency where certain truths are violently attacked and decried as misinformation or targeted by officials looking to weaponize public health data.” Houry’s message stressed that science “must never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

Politico also reported on August 27 that Jennifer Layden, who ran the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, has also resigned.

The departure of yet another CDC official is a particularly grim moment for a health agency that has been fraught with shakeups, resignations, and uncertainty at a time when the need for its public health work is only increasing.