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Susan Monarez, who was confirmed as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by the Senate just weeks ago, has been forced out of the role in what’s the latest in a series of stunning leadership shake-ups at the agency.

The news was first reported by The Washington Post, which spoke to several officials within the Trump administration. Ars Technica reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the CDC, for confirmation. The department instead pointed to a post on its official X account that said:

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.”

In its post, HHS gave no further detail or context for the change. The Washington Post said Monarez was pushed out by the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken anti-vaccine advocate, because she would not reverse course on COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy reportedly asked Monarez to rescind the agency’s approval of the vaccines, but she refused to take such action without consulting the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees first. Kennedy then demanded that she resign, telling her that she had not been doing enough to advance President Trump’s agenda.

Monarez refused and instead reached out to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) about the matter, who had helped smooth Kennedy’s own Senate confirmation earlier this year by extracting assurances from him. Cassidy told Kennedy that he would not accept such demands of CDC leadership, and the two had a heated argument. Afterward, administration officials told Monarez that she should either resign or expect to be fired.

Her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, released a statement on social media, writing that Monarez “did not resign, nor has she received official notice of her termination from the White House.” “Her ouster came after she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” the statement said. “She chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” Zaid confirmed to Ars Technica that Monarez had not received any official termination notice by 8:15 p.m. ET on August 27.

The CDC is a Public Health Agency at a Breaking Point

Monarez had been confirmed by the Senate in late July in what had been seen as a positive step. She was confirmed by a vote of 51–47 along party lines and, after a 2022 law made Senate confirmation a requirement for the role, became the first CDC director in history to be subject to Senate confirmation. Kennedy himself swore her in on July 31, hailing her “unimpeachable scientific credentials” and promising that she would “restore trust” in the CDC.

Monarez is a well-respected scientist. She holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology and most recently served as the deputy director at Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency created during the Biden administration. She had also previously served with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Security Council, and the CDC, where she had previously led the agency as acting director earlier this year before stepping down to allow Trump to nominate her.

Public health experts had welcomed her as CDC director. Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University said, “Dr. Monarez is a loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism.” Georges Benjamin, the head of the American Public Health Association, said that Monarez was “an excellent scientist and has had a very good managerial career.”

Monarez’s own tenure as CDC director was rocked by upheaval, however. The CDC is on the verge of losing hundreds of employees through a combination of layoffs and buyouts, and has seen major cutbacks in many of its programs. Kennedy himself has done nothing to calm the waters, calling COVID-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made” and even saying that the CDC was “a cesspool of corruption.”

Monarez’s ouster comes less than a month after a gunman, radicalized by anti-vaccine misinformation, opened fire on the CDC campus. Nearly 500 rounds were fired, with around 200 striking six different CDC buildings. A local police officer was killed, and CDC staff had to take cover from the gunman, who had blamed his own health issues on vaccines and was specifically targeting the CDC.

Monarez’s reported firing has added to the agency’s crisis. Stat News has confirmed that three high-level officials have also stepped down: Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, who was the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In his goodbye message, Daskalakis wrote, “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Houry’s farewell message also emphasized the need for science to “never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”

Hours earlier, Politico also reported that Jennifer Layden, the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, also resigned.

The latest departure of CDC leadership has laid bare what many consider to be a nadir for an agency that was once considered the bedrock of evidence-based public health. The CDC is now facing hundreds of resignations or impending layoffs, multiple allegations of political interference, and a crisis of confidence at a time of public health need.