New CDC director out after one month, reports say

Ariel Hart, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Aug 27, 2025

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The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newly confirmed director, Susan Monarez, is leaving the job after less than a month officially holding it, according to reports by The Washington Post and The New York Times on Wednesday evening. The story was first reported by the Post.

The departure has been confirmed by Health and Human Services in a post on the social media platform X.

Spokespeople for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Monarez did not immediately respond to emails and text messages from the AJC.

Sarah Boim, a former CDC employee in communications who was fired this year in the first layoffs led by Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency, said the early reports flashed through the community of former and current health workers.

“The reaction is, I think, dismay,” Boim said. “Nobody has had any inkling that this was going to happen, as far as I can tell.”

Monarez had many detractors among agency employees, Boim said, but they also appreciated she showed respect for her fellow CDC workers, and empathy after the Aug. 8 shooting.

Boim also said she appreciated that Monarez brought in local TV crews to tour the bullet-riddled buildings.

Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, also told employees in an email Wednesday evening that he is resigning, according to an image of the email obtained by the AJC.

The Times reported Monarez’s ouster was related to her objection to changes underway in the Trump administration’s vaccine regulation.

Kennedy recently fired the entire membership of the committee of outside experts who make recommendations on vaccines. Other changes are underway to further restrict access to the COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

Changes to the advisory committee have raised alarms among health experts who fear the new members will make decisions that don’t help Americans’ health.

There are other concerns as well.

Kennedy has replaced some of the members with people whose judgment he trusts. One of them posted a meme of a machine gun less than 48 hours after the recent shooting at the CDC, and a meme with the words “if you need a disarmed society to govern, you suck at governing.”