Monarez 's ouster, less than one month after the Senate confirmed her to the role, was followed by resignations from three other top CDC officials in protest of Kennedy’s leadership.
The White House said it fired Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after she refused to step down from her post amid a policy disagreement with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The termination, confirmed late on Aug. 27 by the White House, came after her attorneys denied she had resigned or received notification of her termination, even after HHS announced earlier in the day that Monarez was no longer the CDC director.
Monarez’s ouster, less than one month after the Senate confirmed her to the role, was followed by resignations from three other top CDC officials in protest of Kennedy’s leadership, including his direction on vaccines.
*Monarez was a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.She held roles in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. National Security Council, where her work included initiatives to combat antimicrobial resistance, expand the use of wearable technology for health monitoring, and improve pandemic preparedness efforts.
At the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Monarez served as deputy assistant secretary for strategy and data analytics, overseeing research portfolios for the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.In this capacity, she also led international cooperative initiatives to foster bilateral and multilateral collaboration in health research and innovation.
In January 2023, Monarez was appointed deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), where she led projects focused on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve health outcomes, addressing healthcare accessibility and affordability, expanding mental health interventions, combating the opioid epidemic in the United States, addressing disparities in maternal health, and improving organ donation and transplantation systems.*
So people like this have no business in the Trump Administration.