CDC director pushed out, flood of top resignations follow

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several top officials are departing in a massive shakeup at the embattled agency.

Susan Monarez, the CDC director, was fired just shy of a month into her role. At least four other officials have also submitted their resignations.

“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” a post on the Department of Health and Human Services’ X account said. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people.”

The post went on to say that Secretary Kennedy has full confidence that the CDC “who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

The Washington Post first reported on her ousting.

Four other top CDC officials submitted their resignations, according to letters reviewed by NBC News: Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.

The departures comes at a tumultuous time for the agency.

On Aug. 8, a gunman shattered windows of six buildings of the CDC campus. A police officer died in the shooting. Several days after the shooting, Monarez sought to reassure staffers during a virtual meeting.

“We know that misinformation can be dangerous,” Monarez said during the meeting, according to a transcript obtained by NBC News. “Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust. We need to rebuild the trust together.”

Last Friday, Monarez canceled a meeting with CDC staff that had been scheduled for Monday. The focus of the meeting was going to be safety concerns and security enhancements following the shooting.

“Unfortunately, we need to postpone Monday’s event for an HHS meeting that I have been asked to attend in person in DC,” Monarez wrote in an email to CDC staff seen by NBC News.

With Monarez’s firing, the agency returns to the leaderless state it has been in for the majority of the new Trump administration. Trump’s original pick for CDC director, Dr. David Weldon, was pulled from consideration hours before his confirmation hearing in March. Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, had a history of questioning vaccine safety.

Monarez briefly served as the agency’s acting director before she was nominated in Weldon’s place.