Trump Fires CDC Director, Anti-Vax Wingnuts Now Running Asylum

Shelby Talcott, reporting under the euphemistic headline “White House Fires CDC Director Over Vaccine Disagreements”:

A showdown at the CDC culminated in the White House formally firing its director, Susan Monarez, on Wednesday night.

Monarez was ousted earlier in the day, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked her to step down amid disagreements over changing vaccine policies, The Washington Post reported — and HHS confirmed her departure.

But Monarez’s lawyer, Mark Zaid, pushed back. Zaid said in a statement later that a White House staffer had delivered the news, and given that Monarez is a Senate-confirmed officer, “only the president himself can fire” her. “For this reason, we reject the notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director,” Zaid said.

Four other top CDC directors also resigned Wednesday. “These high profile departures will require oversight by the” Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, panel chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., posted on X.

The “White House” didn’t fire Monarez. Donald Trump did. And while technically, she was fired over “vaccine disagreements”, yes, those disagreements weren’t scientific or medical. It was science on one side, and abject quackery on the other. We really needed the CDC five years ago. We’re in big trouble if we need them again before the US electorate ousts these wingnuts.

Here’s a headline, and coverage, from The Guardian that captures the situation with clarity and without mincing words: “CDC Chief ‘Targeted’ for Refusing to ‘Rubber-Stamp Unscientific, Reckless Directives’, Lawyers Say”

★ Thursday, 28 August 2025