The White House says it has fired the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, after she refused to resign on Wednesday.
In a statement, it said she was “not aligned with the president’s agenda” and she had been removed from her position at the health agency.
The US health department earlier announced her departure, which prompted a statement from Dr Monarez’s lawyers who said she had not been told of her removal and she would not resign.
They said she was being targeted for refusing “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts” and accused Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr of “weaponising public health”.
“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the president’s agenda,” the White House said later on Wednesday, adding that she had been terminated from her position as director.
A long-time federal government scientist, Dr Monarez was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CDC and was confirmed in a Senate vote along party lines in July.
Her nomination followed Trump withdrawing his first pick, former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who had come under fire for his views on vaccines and autism.
Almost immediately after Dr Monarez’s departure was first announced by the health department, at least three senior CDC leaders resigned from the agency.
Among them was Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who warned about the “rise of misinformation” about vaccines in a letter seen by the BBC’s US partner CBS News. She also argued against planned cuts to the agency’s budget.
Daniel Jernigan, who led the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, also quit citing “the current context in the department”.
Head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Demetre Daskalakis, also said he was no longer able to serve “because of the ongoing weaponising of public health”.
There are also reports, including by NBC News, that Dr Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology, has also resigned.
The exodus comes as health experts voice concern over the agency’s approach to immunisations under the leadership of Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved new Covid vaccines while limiting who could receive them.
The vaccines will be available for all seniors, but younger adults and children without underlying health conditions will be excluded.
“The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded,” Kennedy wrote on X.
Dr Monarez was the first CDC director in 50 years to not hold a medical degree. Her background is in infectious disease research.
In her month as the CDC leader, she helped comfort agency employees after the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman who believed he had been harmed by Covid vaccines.
The attack, in which hundreds of bullets struck the building, killed one police officer.
Earlier this month, current and former employees of the agency wrote an open letter accusing Kennedy of fuelling violence towards healthcare workers with his anti-vaccine rhetoric.
