Susan Monares Leaves CDC Soon After Taking Office
Susan Monares, recently appointed as the U.S. Director of Disease Control and Prevention, has departed from the agency just weeks after her swearing-in, as reported by Trump administration officials on Wednesday.
The Washington Post mentioned that her exit took place on Wednesday morning, suggesting it was abrupt, but did not specify the reasons behind her departure. According to unnamed CDC staff, she had canceled all agency-wide calls that were set for Monday, further adding to the mystery.
Neither the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services nor the White House offered immediate comments on the situation.
Monares, who was confirmed by the Senate on July 29 after being nominated by President Donald Trump earlier in the year, officially took her position on July 31 with a swearing-in conducted by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Her exit from the agency occurs in the wake of a shooting incident at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta at the start of the month, raising speculations around her sudden departure.
Notably, she was the second choice for this role; earlier, the nomination of Dave Weldon, a former Republican lawmaker and vaccine critic, was pulled just hours before a planned confirmation hearing in March.
The context is certainly troubling—especially with Kennedy’s ongoing changes to vaccine policies. In May, he retracted federal recommendations on COVID shots for healthy children and pregnant women, further stirring controversy within the health community.
In June, he dismissed all members of the CDC’s Expert Vaccine Advisory Panel, an influential group that guides vaccine usage, replacing them with individuals chosen for their alignment with anti-vaccine views.
It’s striking that significant decisions about vaccine eligibility were made without a CDC director in place. Monares’s departure coincided with Kennedy’s recent announcement concerning changes to COVID vaccine eligibility, leaving many to wonder about the overall stability of leadership in public health.
