by The best public health agency of the nation was thrown in uncertainty on Wednesday evening when the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was abruptly dismissed, only for her lawyers to insist that she remained in the role. Four other Top -CDC officials have resigned, with one of those who claimed in a sharply formulated statement that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the ‘armament of public health’ from the government.
A new acting director for the CDC was appointed on Thursday evening, although the previous director has not yet publicly acknowledged that her term of office ended.
The announcements, legal challenges and accusations came in such a flurry that it can be difficult to keep track of everything. Here is an overview of what happened, where things are now and where they can go from here.
What happened?
On Wednesday evening, the HHS announced via social media that CDC director Susan Monarez, who was sworn in work less than a month ago, no longer led the agency.
Less than two hours later, Monarez’s lawyers responded by saying that she was in fact not fired and would also refuse to resign. They argued that Kennedy, although the CDC falls under its authority as HH -Secretary, does not have the authority to end it. Only President Trump has that power, they said.
“When CDC director Susan Monarez refused to stamp unscrolled, reckless guidelines and dedicated health experts with rubber, she opted for protecting the audience above serving a political agenda. She is the target for that,” Monarez’s lawyers wrote in a statement.
The White House published his own explanation on Wednesday evening and said that Monorez had been released because she “was not tailored to the president’s agenda to make America healthy again.” The lawyers of Monarez said that it was still not enough because it came from a spokesperson for the White House, instead of Trump himself.
“As a presidential appointed, Senate’s officer, only the president himself can fire her,” wrote Mark Zaid, one of the lawyers of Monarez, on social media.
Witte Huis Pers Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday morning that Trump himself had fired Monarez, but Zaid said that that was still not enough.
‘[Leavitt] Can say what she wants. … but it does not actually make her comments true, not even from a stage of the White House, “he wrote on social media.
Four other TOP -CDC officials left the office on Wednesday evening due to frustration over the direction of the desk led by RFK.
“I can no longer serve in this role because of the continuous armament of public health,” wrote Demetre Daskalakis, who was in charge of the center that supervises national vaccination strategies, in an e -mail to colleagues who were shared with the media.
The Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry of the CDC, the director of the Public Health data Jennifer Layden and the director of the National Center for Immerization and Respiratory Diseases Daniel Jernigan also resigned.
During an interview on FOX News on Thursday morning, Kennedy said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on personnel issues. But he has raised serious criticism of the CDC and claimed that the desk is ‘in trouble’ and adds that “it may be that some people should no longer work there.”
Kennedy specifically called on the actions of the CDC during the Coronavirus Pandemie.
“President Trump currently has very, very ambitious hope for CDC and CDC has problems,” he said. “We saw the wrong information coming from Covid. They did the tests wrong. They got the social distance, the masks, the school closures that today caused so much damage to the American people.”
Trump still has to comment publicly on the fire of Monarez, which would probably put an end to the uncertainty about her status.
However, HHS is moving forward as if the issue has been resolved. Jim O’Neill, Kennedy’s best substitute in the department, was appointed acting director of the CDC on Thursday evening. O’Neill, a former health officer who became Silicon Valley investor, was also a frequent critic of the CDC during the pandemic, although he described himself as “very strong pro-vaccine” during a confirmation hearing for his previous position in May.
How did we get here?
Kennedy was a controversial choice to lead HHS because of its long history of health claims that are contrary to scientific consensus, especially when it comes to the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. He was confirmed by a narrow margin in the Senate, where all Democrats voted against his confirmation and one after one republican voices.
Earlier this year, Kennedy announced mass redundancies within HHS, including hundreds of employees, apart from the CDC. During his term of office, he re -tuned a large part of the department around his Make America Healthy Again Agenda, which focuses on solutions for chronic diseases that often conflict with medical consensus. He also dismissed all members of the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Board, to replace allies who have a history of vaccine skepticism and brought a researcher in whose work has been criticized on a large scale to lead a study into the causes of autism.
Monarez, a researcher of the career -infection diseases, was the second choice of Trump for CDC director. She was chosen after Trump’s first nominated, Dave Weldon, was withdrawn over clear concerns that Weldon could not get enough votes in the Senate to be confirmed because of his own comments from the past about vaccines.
Allegedly, Monararez hit the heads with Kennedy during her short term of office as a CDC director. Earlier this month, the tensions within the agency escalated after a shooter-motivated by extreme anti-vaccine beliefs at the headquarters of the CDC opened in Atlanta, crashed hundreds of windows and killed a police officer. In the aftermath of the attack, more than 750 HHS employees published a letter to Kennedy in which he was asked to stop distributing vaccine -moved information. Monarez had previously sent a note to CDC employees who complained about the “fatal consequences” of vaccine conspiracies, although she did not blame Kennedy.
The situation came to a peak on Wednesday, hours after the Food and Drug Administration had announced new guidelines for COVID-19 vaccines that make it more difficult for adults under the age of 65 without an underlying medical condition to gain access to the recordings.
What happens afterwards?
Trump can formally end the term of office of Monarez with the CDC at any time by firing her personally.
However, the scandal cannot end when Monarez is eventually driven out. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who leads the Senate Committee that handles health -related issues, said that the high -profile departure on the CDC supervision of the congress requires.
Cassidy also called for a coming meeting of the HHS’s Vaccine Advisory Committee to be postponed until the allegations of the deceased CDC employees have been fully investigated.
“These decisions have a direct influence on the health of children and the meeting may not take place until considerable supervision has been carried out,” he wrote in a statement. “If the meeting continues, all recommendations must be rejected as a missing legitimacy given the severity of the allegations and the current unrest in CDC leadership.”
A permanent director for the CDC must also be appointed. It is unclear whether O’Neill, who is expected to keep his job at HHS while he also serves as acting director, will be nominated to fulfill the long -term position. Every new director should be confirmed by the Senate.
