BREAKING: RFK Jr. OUSTS New CDC Director, Several Top CDC Officials RESIGN!

Just weeks after being confirmed by the Senate, CDC Director Susan Monarez is out!

It’s widely suspected that HHS Secretary RFK Jr. ousted her after she tried to push back on him over changes in policy for the COVID vaccine.

Several other top HHS officials — including the Director of the CDC vaccine unit — have also turned in their resignation.

Take a look:

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. @SecKennedyhas full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.

RFK Jr. reportedly gave Monarez the option to either resign or be fired multiple times.

She refused to gracefully resign, and so, she was ousted from the role today.

Politico has more:

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on X Wednesday that Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is “no longer director” after just one month in the role.

However, an HHS official granted anonymity to discuss the situation, says Monarez was repeatedly asked to resign but refused. Monarez had received a call Wednesday afternoon from a White House official who advised her to resign by the end of the day or be fired by President Donald Trump, the official said, but she remains in the position.

An HHS spokesperson directed POLITICO to the X post from the agency, which also said: We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.”

Three top CDC leaders resigned minutes after Monarez’s news broke, including Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis and National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Director Daniel Jernigan, said four people familiar with the departures granted anonymity to discuss the developments.

Monarez was called into a meeting in Washington with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and HHS Principal Deputy Chief of Staff Stefanie Spear on Monday, when the two pressured her to resign, the HHS official said. Monarez declined. She was also directed to fire several senior CDC staff by the end of the week, the official said.

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It was unclear Wednesday why HHS was seeking the ouster of Monarez and her staff.

Monarez was confirmed as CDC director roughly a month ago by the Senate. She won support from several public health experts who have denounced Kennedy and said they hoped she would serve as a bulwark against his plans to upend the agency.

While the HHS did not provide an explicit reason as to why Monarez was fired, this news comes on the same day RFK Jr. revoked the Emergency Use Authorization for the COVID vaccine.

Per Axios:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a series of moves Wednesday that will limit who is eligible for COVID vaccines even though the stratus variant is surging.

Why it matters: Patients who now want to get the COVID vaccines will first have to consult with their doctor rather than booking directly with a pharmacy, adding another step to the process.

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What he’s saying: “The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded,” Kennedy wrote on X.

• The FDA and White House did not immediately respond to Axios’ requests for comment.

State of play: The FDA approved an updated Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for adults 65 and older.

• Younger people, between 5 and 64, are eligible if they have at least one underlying health condition putting them at high risk for severe outcomes from the virus.
• “FDA has now issued marketing authorization for those at higher risk: Moderna (6+ months), Pfizer (5+), and Novavax (12+),” Kennedy said.
• Pfizer said in a statement that this season’s COVID-19 vaccine will begin shipping immediately and be available in pharmacies, hospitals and clinics across the U.S. in the coming days.

That leads many to suspect that Monarez was fired for objecting to this move.