CDC officials resign in protest after Trump fires director
Four senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have resigned in protest.
(NBC)-Four senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have resigned in protest, citing political interference in public health decisions under the Trump administration.
The move comes just weeks after President Trump fired CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez, less than a month into her tenure.
Among those stepping down are leading experts in infectious diseases, vaccines, and public health. Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, called for politics to be removed from public health. “Let’s get the politics out of public health,” he said.
The White House has appointed Jim O’Neill, a close deputy to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as acting CDC director. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has argued the agency mishandled parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s a lot of trouble at CDC,” Kennedy said, “and it’s going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture.”
Attorneys for Monarez said she was dismissed after refusing to approve “unscientific, reckless directives” and declining to fire career health experts. Her allies within the agency resigned in solidarity, warning that Kennedy could use the leadership shift to push sweeping changes to federal vaccine policy.
Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s former Chief Medical Director and Deputy Director for Program and Science, said the departures were meant as a warning. “America’s public health is significantly in danger. And Dmitry, Dan and I chose to leave together to send that bat signal,” she said.
The officials raised alarm about the rise of vaccine misinformation, which they said contributed to the largest number of measles cases in three decades, while also eroding long-standing scientific consensus.
Despite the criticism, the White House defended the shakeup, framing it as part of President Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
