Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: AT least three senior CDC leaders resigned from the agency, some citing frustration over vaccine policy and the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F.Kennedy, also known as RFK. On August 27 the White House said that it had fired Susan Monarez, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after a tense confrontation in which Kennedy tried to remove her from her position.
But prominent D.C-based attorney Mark Zaid said in a statement that Monarez “has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she was fired.” He said that he and lawyer Abbe Lowell are representing Monarez. Among the three who resigned was Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who warned about the “rise of misinformation” about vaccines in a letter seen by the BBC’s US partner CBS News. She also argued against planned cuts to the agency’s budget.
A long-time federal government scientist, Monarez was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CDC and was confirmed in a Senate vote along party lines in July.
Monarez’s lawyers issued a statement saying that she had chosen “protecting the public over serving a political agenda”. The White House statement announcing the termination of her post said: “As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the president’s agenda.” Kennedy told Fox News that the CDC leadership “needs to execute Trump’s agenda”.
The CDC, he added, “is in trouble, needs to be fixed”.
