Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back at it on Thursday morning. Here are the latest developments:
The leadership of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was thrown into chaos after the health department announced the Senate-confirmed CDC director, Susan Monarez, was no longer in charge, but her lawyers said she refused to resign and had not been fired.
First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Robert F Kennedy Jr and HHS have set their sights on “weaponizing public health for political gain” and “putting millions of American lives at risk”, lawyers for Monarez said in a statement. “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted. 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.”
At least three CDC senior officials resigned after Monarez was ousted. One squarely blamed Robert F Kennedy Jr’s leadership.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health,” Dr Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases told colleagues.
Public health experts are sounding the alarm about the chaos at the CDC, as at least three senior leaders resigned following the ouster of the apparent ouster of the CDC director.
As a Senate-confirmed official, only the president has the authority to fire her, and, for once, Donald Trump has been strangely silent as this drams unfolded. But the White House press office issued a statement saying that Monarez had been removed, not by Trump but by “the White House”.
Updated
Unlike Kennedy or Trump, CDC director mourned officer who defended CDC from gunman
While differences over vaccines appear to have been central to the rift between the ousted CDC director, Susan Monarez, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, Monarez also stood out from her bosses by mourning for the officer who died defending the agency’s campus in Atlanta from a gunman who was driven by misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine.
While Monarez publicly mourned David Rose, who, as our colleague George Chidi wrote, was murdered by a lie, others in the CDC were distressed that Kennedy said little, and Trump nothing about the attack on their campus.
A large group of CDC employees and I attended today's memorial for Officer David Rose, whose Tour of Duty ended on August 8 when he responded to shots fired. He leaves behind a legacy of love, courage, and service to the community that will never be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/9kdOiCG3eD
— CDC Director Susan Monarez (@CDCMonarez) August 22, 2025
