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Susan Monarez has been fired less than a month after she took the position as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Wednesday, August 27, an X post by the Department of Health and Human Services read, "Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we thank her for her dedicated service to the American people."
Monarez's departure comes at an unstable time for the agency, as on August 8, a gunman, who believed he was sick due to COVID-19 vaccination, opened fire and shattered windows of six buildings of the CDC's Atlanta campus.
The incident claimed the life of a police officer and several days after the shooting, Monarez, in a virtual meeting, reassured staff members about the incident.
"We know that misinformation can be dangerous," she said during the meeting, adding, "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 cancelled a meeting with CDC staff that had been scheduled for Monday for "an HHS meeting that I have been asked to attend in person in DC," as per her email.
The focus of the meeting was going to be safety concerns and security enhancements following the shooting incident.
With her firing, the agency has once again returned 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. The former congressman from Florida had a reputation for questioning vaccine safety.
Susan Monarez briefly served as the agency's acting director before she was nominated in Weldon's place.
