Hard Wire

Monarez Retains Counsel After Being Let Go

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shown Sunday, March 15, 2020, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been convulsed by a leadership crisis unlike anything in its history, and at the center of the storm is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The clash over vaccines, accountability, and the future of U.S. public health has now exploded into mass firings, resignations, lawsuits, and demands for Senate investigations.

The flashpoint was Kennedy’s removal of CDC Director Susan Monarez, who openly resisted his push to remove mRNA COVID vaccines from the childhood immunization schedule and refused to align with the broader “MAHA” agenda. Monarez quickly retained legal counsel and took her case to the Washington Post, casting Kennedy as a danger to public health.


Her ouster triggered a cascade of resignations from senior leadership. Dan Jernigan, head of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, CDC’s chief medical officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and formerly dubbed the Biden administration’s “Monkeypox Czar,” all stepped down. Daskalakis, in particular, has been vocal in the media, accusing Kennedy of politicizing science — a charge that carries its own irony given his high-profile advocacy on social issues while in government.

Resistance inside the agency has hardened. Last week, 750 CDC employees signed a letter blaming Kennedy’s rhetoric for fueling public hostility toward government health workers — even linking it to a tragic shooting incident at CDC headquarters. Meanwhile, in Congress, Senator Bernie Sanders has demanded an investigation, warning that Kennedy is “pushing out scientific leaders” and replacing them with loyalists. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, who had reluctantly supported Kennedy’s nomination after extracting vaccine-related assurances, is now signaling the need for oversight hearings.


Adding more fuel, former CDC directors spanning administrations from Carter through Biden co-signed a New York Times essay titled “We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health.” Their criticisms — that Kennedy has gutted public health programs, ended U.S. support for global vaccine campaigns, and stacked advisory boards with allies — were pointed and coordinated, aligning neatly with Monarez’s legal strategy.


But Kennedy’s allies argue this is precisely the disruption that was needed. The CDC’s failures during COVID — from testing delays to heavy-handed mandates — remain fresh in the public mind. The agency, they say, became an institution driven by fear and politics rather than science and accountability. Lawsuits now target its untested 72-dose childhood vaccine schedule, with Monarez herself named as a defendant. Attorneys for the plaintiffs claim the CDC has never properly studied the cumulative impact of its own recommendations.


The stakes couldn’t be higher. Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee, where critics such as Sen. Ron Wyden are sharpening their attacks. Wyden accuses Kennedy of secrecy and dismantling health protections “amid the largest cuts to American health care in history.” Kennedy, for his part, insists he is forcing long-overdue reforms and pursuing the root causes of chronic disease rather than perpetuating a system that, in his words, has “failed the American people for decades.”

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