CDC in Chaos: Director Fired, Top Leaders Resign in Protest

What Happened:

• On Wednesday, August 28, the HHS abruptly fired CDC Director Susan Monarez after she refused to implement vaccine policy changes directed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to the Washington Post
• Within hours, Inside Medicine and Politico broke news that four senior CDC officials resigned resigned, seemingly in protest:
  • Dr. Debra Houry, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Science 
  • Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases 
  • Dr. Daniel Jernigan, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases 
  • Dr. Jen Layden, Director of the Office of Public Health Data & Surveillance Technology

Why it matters:

• The departures signal increasing concerns about RFK’s meddling in public health efforts that keep us safe, undermining evidence-based policies, and placing vaccine opponents in strategic positions.
• Houry, Daskalakis, and Jernigan all alluded to the Health Secretary’s governance, and the Trump administration’s health policy agenda more broadly, as the reason for their departures.
  • Houry: “Vaccines save lives—this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact […] Recently, the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of U.S. measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency.” (all emphasis added)
    • Houry also wrote that “CDC has proven its value in addressing conditions like hypertension, diabetes, cancer, overdose, and mental health issues […] However, proposed budget cuts and reorganization plans will negatively impact CDC’s ability to address these conditions, worsening the nation’s health.”
  • Daskalakis: “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health”
    • In a longer letter posted on Twitter/X, Daskalakis warned that the Trump administration’s “desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults” and urged HHS to “reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution.”
  • Jernigan: “I believe strongly in the mission of public health and the leadership that CDC has given for almost 80 years; however, given the current context in the Department, I feel it is best for me to offer my resignation.”
    • According to the Washington Post, “Jernigan said the last straw for him was being forced to work with David Geier, a proponent of the false claim that vaccines cause autism who was hired by HHS to review old vaccine safety data and study a possible link between the two.”

More Context:

• This is not Kennedy’s first ousting of top CDC leadership…
  • In June, RFK Jr. abruptly fired all seventeen sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), as well as the 8 confirmed appointees set to replace members whose terms were expiring. He then reconstituted the committee with eight entirely new members, some of whom have openly expressed skepticism against vaccine efficacy. 
• …nor the first time agency heads have left their positions in response to the Health Secretary’s actions
  • That same month, Drs. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos and Fiona Havers both resigned in the week after RFK Jr. unilaterally altered COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.
    • “My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population, and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role,” Dr Panagiotakopoulos—who co-led ACIP—wrote in her resignation letter.
    • According to Reuters, Dr. Havers left the CDC’s RESP-NET Hospitalization Surveillance Team over concerns that disease surveillance data was no longer being “evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions.”
      • In a follow-up interview with The New York Times, Havers warned that “a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases,” if the Trump administration’s antivax agenda isn’t stopped.

What’s next:

• A Legal Standoff: Monarez has refused to vacate her position, arguing that RFK Jr. does not have the authority to oust her.
• Communicating the stakes: We will regularly explain how this hostile dismantling of our public health apparatus will lead to more diseases and unnecessary deaths. We implore others to do the same. When people die needlessly, democratic accountability requires the victims to become the names and faces of an intentional policy failure.
• Accountability for Villains: House Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) have all called for RFK Jr’s immediate removal from office. RFK Jr’s name and face should be attached to each and every victim of his policies in the future.