The Donald Trump administration is officially running out of people

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is facing a serious and growing crisis after the sudden firing of its director, Susan Monarez, and the following mass resignations of several top officials. This major upheaval has thrown the nation’s most important public health agency into a state of confusion and has raised very serious questions about its future and the increasing politicization of science.

Monarez, a microbiologist who became the first confirmed CDC director under a 2023 law and the first one without a medical degree, was fired on August 27. This was less than a month after her confirmation by the Senate. According to The Guardian, her dismissal was over disagreements regarding vaccine policy, an action her legal team claims was improper and not authorized.

They argue that only the president has the power to remove a CDC director. Monarez joined the CDC in January 2025 as a principal deputy director and briefly served as acting director before her Senate confirmation on July 31. It is hard to think these are good firings when even RFK Jr. admitted that many were mistakes.

The CDC is spiralling out of control

After Monarez was removed, a wave of resignations hit the agency. Debra Houry, the former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science, resigned in late August. A physician with degrees from Emory University and Tulane University, Houry cited the spread of vaccine misinformation, upcoming budget reductions, and political meddling as her reasons for leaving. She had a long and distinguished career, working as an emergency doctor and in various academic leadership roles before joining the CDC. Her departure is a significant loss of medical and administrative expertise.

Another key person who left was Demetre Daskalakis, a public health physician known for his work in HIV prevention and vaccination programs. As the former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Daskalakis left on August 28, which was just one day after Monarez’s firing.

His resignation letter reportedly condemned political interference, data manipulation, and what he called a decline in scientific integrity. Daskalakis, who received his medical degree from NYU and did his postgraduate training at Harvard, joined the CDC in 2020. His decision to leave shows how deep the ideological divide is within the agency.

The wave of departures continued with the resignation of Daniel Jernigan, a long serving official who first joined the CDC’s epidemic intelligence service back in 1994. Jernigan, who was the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and a key figure in influenza and pandemic preparedness, left his position in August. He joined the other top officials in expressing his strong objection to what they saw as the politicization of science and a major loss of trust in the agency’s leadership.

His departure represents the loss of decades of institutional knowledge and experience. There’s also Jennifer Layden, the former director of the office of public health data, science, and technology, also resigned in August following Monarez’s removal. Layden, a medical doctor and epidemiologist who previously served as Illinois’ chief medical officer, focused on modernizing outbreak tracking and response systems at the CDC.

She also warned about the damaging effects of political influence on science based decision making. The synchronized nature of all these resignations suggests a coordinated protest against the new direction of the agency and its current leadership, raising serious concerns about the CDC’s ability to do its job. The rapid departure of so many experienced and highly credentialed individuals points to a deep seated philosophical conflict with the current administration’s approach to public health and science.