The Trump administration’s abrupt ouster of its new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday rattled public health experts, who viewed it as a sign that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is further undercutting the integrity of one of the nation’s health agencies.
But beyond the firing of Susan Monarez, experts were also shaken by the resignations on the same day of at least four top career officials at the CDC. They included several well-known public health advocates who guided the country’s responses to infectious disease outbreaks, planned for future pandemics, and aimed to reduce the burden of injuries and deaths from the most common causes.
The officials who resigned were Demetre Daskalakis, an HIV physician and director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry; Daniel Jernigan, a top flu specialist and director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Jennifer Layden, the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
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