menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

CDC left rudderless amid turmoil

2 0
29.08.2025
*{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0}#converted-body .list_block ol,#converted-body .list_block ul,.body [class~=x_list_block] ol,.body [class~=x_list_block] ul,u .body .list_block ol,u .body .list_block ul{padding-left:20px} @media (max-width:620px){.desktop_hide table.icons-outer{display:inline-table!important}.image_block div.fullWidth{max-width:100%!important}.mobile_hide{display:none}.row-content{width:100%!important}.stack .column{width:100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow:hidden;font-size:0}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{display:table!important;max-height:none!important}.reverse{display:table;width:100%}.reverse .column.first{display:table-footer-group!important}.reverse .column.last{display:table-header-group!important}.row-6 td.column.first .border,.row-8 td.column.first .border{padding:5px 5px 15px 25px}.row-10 td.column.last .border,.row-6 td.column.last .border,.row-8 td.column.last .border{padding:5px 20px 25px 5px}.row-10 td.column.first .border{padding:5px 5px 15px 25px;border-bottom:15px solid transparent}} Click in for more news from The Hill

{beacon}

Health Care

Health Care

 

The Big Story

CDC headless as top leaders are pushed out or resign

Within a single day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has lost five top officials, crippling the already embattled agency and spreading panic through the public health space.

© AP

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said CDC Director Susan Monarez would no longer work at the agency, and shortly afterward four key officials at the agency announced they would step down from their posts.

Monarez is fighting the HHS Secretary’s efforts to push her out, and her attorney argues that the only person that can fire her is President Trump. A source close to Monarez defended her against the attacks coming from the administration.

“I think Susan was a pick for a role that very few people wanted to take on because of the difficulty,” they told The Hill. “And that she really stepped into it as a good American that knew the nation needed leadership. And she was very clear about where she is on issues related to science, on vaccine process, administrative process, supporting agency staff.”

The departures have shaken many within the CDC and broader scientific community who now fear for the future of public health.

“These are uncharted waters,” said a top CDC official during a Thursday meeting of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). “But we will do our best to navigate, to move forward, to do the work that we think needs to be done in the way that it needs to be done.”

NCEZID Director Daniel Jernigan was among the CDC leaders who submitted their resignations on Wednesday.

Public health experts fear the departures have now weakened the agency and illustrate how “blind political orthodoxy and obedience” are more important to the Trump administration than studying science and making policy based on the best available scientific evidence.

Several of the leaders who resigned, including Jernigan and Demetre Daskalakis, who was director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, specialized in infectious diseases.

Their resignations are........

© The Hill