LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Department of Health and Human Services says the new director of the Centers for Disease Control has been fired.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
HHS announced Wednesday that Susan Monarez was no longer CDC director less than a month after being sworn in. Hours later, though, attorneys representing Monarez posted on X that she had not resigned or been notified by the White House that she had been fired.
FADEL: NPR health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin is here to explain. Good morning, Selena.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Morning, Leila.
FADEL: So first, just remind us who Susan Monarez is and her path to CDC director.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, she's a microbiologist who's held several roles as a career scientist in the federal government. She was President Trump's second choice to lead the agency after former Congressman Dave Weldon, who couldn't get enough support in the Senate. So Monarez did get through the Senate confirmation process. She was sworn in on July 31. And she came in to lead a public health agency that suffered major staff and budget cuts, that's been disparaged by members of the Trump administration. Then in her first week on the job, a gunman fired hundreds of bullets into the agency, and a police officer was killed.
FADEL: So then what happened Wednesday?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, first, The Washington Post reported that Monarez was out. The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that reporting a few hours later. The post on X said that, quote, "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."
FADEL: But that's not the end of it, right?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, right. So just after HHS posted that, at least five really extremely senior career scientists at CDC announced their resignations. They include the agency's chief medical officer, the director of the center on emerging infectious diseases. Several wrote scathing resignation letters, including Demetre Daskalakis, who directed the center on immunizations and respiratory diseases. He shared his letter on X and said that no expert from his center had ever briefed Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on measles or bird flu or anything else and said, I'm not sure who the secretary is listening to, but it is not us. And he also wrote, quote, "having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page-long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function."
And then a twist - attorney Mark Zaid shared on social media he was representing Susan Monarez and she had not resigned. And late last night, he wrote in a statement that, quote, "as a presidential appointee, Senate-confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her. For this reason, we reject notification that Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient, and she remains as CDC director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position."
FADEL: And really quickly, what spurred all of this?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, I spoke to a senior CDC leader. It sounds like there was a meeting late last week with HHS leadership that went very badly. And what this does is it leaves CDC without a director and without really senior staff leaders at a time when the agency is really struggling.
FADEL: That's NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thank you, Selena.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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