Top CDC Officials Resigned After Trump Administration Said It Fired Susan Monarez

Three high-ranking officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have submitted their resignations in the wake of the Trump administration’s stated dismissal of CDC Director Susan Monarez, two agency employees with knowledge of the situation confirmed.

The three departing officials are Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a lengthy post on the social media platform X, Daskalakis accused Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of commandeering the CDC to “generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”

Daskalakis said the department’s new leadership was engaging in “radical non-transparency” and manipulating data.

“I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us,” he wrote. “Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources.”

Monarez is fighting her dismissal by the Trump administration, according to attorney Mark S. Zaid, who posted on X that he and attorney Abbe Lowell are representing her. “Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired,” Zaid wrote.

In a resignation letter sent to CDC employees and reviewed by NOTUS, Houry wrote: “I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency. This is a heartbreaking decision that I make with a heavy heart.”

“For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations,” Houry added.

Kennedy has drawn considerable ire for targeting a range of public health interventions including vaccines, fluoride and the study of emerging diseases.

He announced Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration was placing new restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines.

Jernigan said that he believes “strongly in the mission of public health and the leadership that CDC has given for almost 80 years.”

“Given the current context in the Department, I feel it is best for me to offer my resignation,” he wrote in his resignation email reviewed by NOTUS.

The CDC comprises 12 centers that are the epicenter of public health in the U.S. The agency was rocked by a shooting that took place on its Atlanta campus earlier this month. The gunman, who shot hundreds of bullets at the building, killing a police officer, was reportedly motivated by wanting to make “the public aware of his discontent” with the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I can’t iterate how utterly terrible this all is,” one CDC employee told NOTUS. “It’s very disheartening.”