OAN Staff Sophia Flores
12:43 PM –Thursday, August 28, 2025
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has revealed that Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been removed from her position.
“HHS can confirm that Dr. Monarez is no longer director of the CDC,” the agency wrote on X on Wednesday.
However, lawyers for Monarez released a statement disputing the announcement, insisting that she has not resigned from her position and doesn’t plan to.
“Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign,” lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell wrote in a statement on her behalf.
After Monarez refused to vacate the position, via her lawyer statement, White House spokesman Kush Desai reaffirmed that she has been officially terminated — despite her own objections.
“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” Desai said in a statement. “Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.”
Zaid then shot back by arguing that the only official who has the ability to fire Monarez is President Trump.
“Our client was notified tonight by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired. As a presidential appointee, Senate-confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her,” Zaid wrote around midnight Wednesday.
“For this reason, we reject notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director,” he continued. “We have notified the White House Counsel of our position.”
Monarez was confirmed as the CDC director less than a month ago on July 29th, in a narrow 51-47 party-line by the Senate.
During her confirmation hearing, Monarez looked toward Democrat lawmakers and asserted that she has “not seen a casual link between vaccines and autism.”
This issue is one that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who leads the agency, has long been passionate about. In April, he spearheaded a study with results he is set to release publicly in September. While Kennedy Jr. has long expressed worries regarding vaccine-related injuries, particularly concerning mRNA vaccines, Monarez remains a steadfast advocate for all forms of vaccination.
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