Susan Monares Confirmed as CDC Director
The Senate confirmed Susan Monares as the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. She takes over the agency overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., marking a significant appointment.
Monares, who is 50 years old, is President Trump’s second choice for the position, receiving a narrow 51-47 vote, largely along party lines.
The CDC has been without a permanent leader since March, when Monares resigned as acting director after being appointed to the role. She’s the first nominee for CDC director to require Senate confirmation.
Under her leadership, budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration seek to reduce the CDC’s finances by nearly half come 2026, which may lead to hundreds of staff layoffs. This move has drawn criticism from public health experts, who argue that Kennedy’s actions—such as changing vaccine recommendations and dismissing members of the vaccine advisory panel—undermine the agency’s credibility.
With no director in place, Kennedy took the controversial step of firing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Vaccination Practices (ACIP) and installing his own team. In typical practice, the CDC director’s approval is needed for ACIP recommendations to become official policy; however, Kennedy operated without this crucial leadership.
Last month, Kennedy’s ACIP voted to eliminate thimerosal from flu vaccines, despite existing studies asserting its safety when used on rare occasions. Although he signed this recommendation, he has yet to endorse another proposal urging everyone to receive the flu vaccination.
In a similar vein, HHS made headlines when it unilaterally decided against recommending the Covid-19 vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children, bypassing established institutional protocols.
Unlike some of Trump’s other health nominees, Monares isn’t viewed as a polarizing figure. With nearly 20 years of experience in various federal roles, she didn’t work directly for the CDC prior to Trump’s presidency, which brought scrutiny from the administration early in his second term.
Before her current position, she was the assistant director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and served as a science and technology policy fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Trump selected Monares after his initial pick, former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon, faced challenges in gaining Senate Republican support due to his past advocacy linking vaccines to autism.
During her confirmation hearing, Monares affirmed that “vaccines save lives” while emphasizing there is no evidence linking vaccines to autism. However, she navigated her responses carefully, avoiding direct contradiction of her boss, even when pressed by a Democratic senator.
A prominent Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee expressed doubts about Monares, stating, “In my view, we need a CDC director who rejects Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous conspiracy theory on safe and effective vaccines that have protected science, protected public health, and saved millions of lives over the years.” This Senator ultimately voted against her nomination.
In contrast, Senate President Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the Help Committee, supported Monares, advocating for leaders who aim to reform the CDC and rebuild public trust in health institutions through scientific decision-making.
