RFK Jr. names new CDC head as staff revolt

CDC leaders who quit over Trump administration policies walk through a "clap line" outside agency. — The firing of Susan Monarez led three other top CDC officials to quit

(Image credit: Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images)

What happened

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Thursday night informed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees that he had installed his deputy, Jim O'Neill, as acting CDC director, a day after the White House said it had fired Susan Monarez, the recently Senate-confirmed director, at Kennedy's request.

Who said what

CDC staff are "openly revolting" over Monarez's contested firing and "months of tension over vaccine policy and staffing cuts," The Washington Post said. The turmoil has also "triggered rare bipartisan alarm," The Associated Press said. Kennedy "has not explained the decision to oust Monarez," but her lawyers said it was because she refused to "rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts."

At a meeting Monday, Kennedy ordered Monarez to "agree to accept whatever recommendations were made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy," which he stacked with fellow vaccine skeptics after firing the previous panel, The New York Times said. The White House said it fired Monarez, but President Donald Trump has remained "silent."

Trump has privately lamented that he "can't take more credit for the Covid vaccine," which he considered "one of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency," said The Wall Street Journal. But he has consistently "had Kennedy's back," and Trump and his "loyalists" have long believed the health secretary helped him win in 2024, Politico said, and that keeping his "MAHA enthusiasts in the GOP tent is crucial to ensuring the party holds onto power in the midterms." Monarez's ouster "proves that no one will provide an effective check on Kennedy — not Republican senators" and "certainly not" Trump, The Washington Post said in an editorial.

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What next?

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Thursday that Kennedy's vaccine advisory panel's upcoming meeting to craft recommendations for childhood vaccines "should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted," and if it does, "any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy."

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.