There is huge shakeup occurring at the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Shakeup that could only happen under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As this plays out, it becomes increasingly clear why both Democrat and Republican senators so vociferously opposed his nomination. Republicans fell in line to get him confirmed, but with this tempest still brewing, will their allegiance to the Trump and MAHA agendas hold?
Kennedy recently fired CDC Director Susan Monarez over her refusal to align with Kennedy's goals regarding removal of the COVID mRNA vaccine from the childhood vaccine schedule, and her resistance to aims of the MAHA agenda.
Read More: Report: CDC Director Out After 1 Month on the Job, Along With Several Other Resignations
Trump Drops Ultimatum to Big Pharma on COVID Vaccine Amid CDC Drama
Monarez lawyered up, and then took to favored legacy media, The Washington Post, to declare that she has not really been fired, and that Kennedy is a danger to public health.
Following Monarez's firing, three chief CDC officials tendered their resignation: Dan Jernigan, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, chief medical officer, and Demetre Daskalakis, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Daskalakis, the openly gay bondage advocate also known as former President Joe Biden's "Monkeypox Czar," has been making the rounds on legacy media, trashing Kennedy and the Trump administration for making this all about politics. Apparently he failed to look in the mirror that morning. Daskalakis also needs the public to know that Kennedy is an existential threat to the survivability of the CDC and to the health and safety of Americans.
This is Biden's Monkeypox Czar, because of course it is 🙄 pic.twitter.com/0QpWrSJ9e1
— The Heretical Liberal 🇨🇦 (@Rob_ThaBuilder) August 14, 2024
As my colleague streiff wrote:
The event was the culmination of the tumultuous 30-day reign of CDC Director Susan Monarez, during which she made it abundantly clear that she was not interested in collaborating with RFK, Jr., on his "MAHA" agenda. Once it became clear that Monarez was out and CDC was no longer a personal playground but part of the federal government, three other officials, including Dr. Monkeypox, resigned.
Last Wednesday, as sort of a prelude to today, 750 CDC employees sent a letter to RFK, Jr., and Congress accusing him of contributing to harassment and violence against government employees because someone who, rightly or wrongly, blamed CDC for his health problems, fired some 180 rifle rounds into CDC Headquarters. In the process, he killed a DeKalb County police officer before killing himself.
Dive Deeper: CDC in Throes of Mutiny As Employees Stage Walk Out in Support of Fired Director and Her Deputies
Infamous Biden-Era CDC Official Resigns, Immediately Shows He Should Have Been Fired Long Ago
The Chairman and ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee are demanding answers. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is particularly exercised, calling for an investigation into the firing.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is pushing for a bipartisan investigation into the firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, which prompted the resignations of four other senior leaders at the agency.
The ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee pointed to statements by the former CDC officials that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been putting political pressure on the agency.
“[Kennedy] is pushing out scientific leaders who refuse to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous conspiracy theories and manipulate science. Enough is enough,” Sanders wrote in a Thursday letter to Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La. “We have got to make it clear to Secretary Kennedy that his actions to double down on his war on science and disinformation campaign must end. Too many lives are at stake.”
Cassidy’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but the senator did post on X that this matter would require oversight by the committee. Cassidy, a medical doctor, had expressed reservations about the nomination of Kennedy, who has spread misinformation about vaccines for years. But he agreed to support him after receiving several commitments related to vaccines.
Sanders specifically requested that Kennedy, Monarez and the CDC officials who resigned testify at a hearing. Kennedy is scheduled to testify next week before the Senate Finance Committee.
These high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee. https://t.co/38xBrC7cC6
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) August 28, 2025
Then there is a Monday opinion/guest essay published in the New York Times, signed by former acting and confirmed CDC directors. The essay, titled “We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health," aligns with the talking points coming from the Monarez camp and the disaffected CDC officials. The signees— William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky and Mandy K. Cohen—span Democrat and Republican administrations from the late 1970s up to the Biden Administration.
What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced.
In this they are not wrong: Kennedy is doing something unprecedented. Namely, working to return public health back to actual care and resource for Americans, rather than one that uses Americans as experimental fodder for world agencies and their globalist agendas.
Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven “treatments” while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
Actually, the CDC has been severely weakened for decades, and has failed to protect Americans health, especially the health of children.
The chronic disease epidemic that plagues our nation has played out on all their watches, which means they have failed. This was no more apparent than during the COVID period, which occurred under former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Monarez was also a ranking official in the CDC during this period, and she has been specifically named in a new lawsuit which targets the CDC's childhood immunization program.
Two doctors who lost their medical licenses because they questioned the CDC’s vaccine recommendations for children are suing the agency for failing to test the cumulative effect of the 72-dose schedule on children’s health.
Drs. Paul Thomas and Kenneth P. Stoller and Stand for Health Freedom filed the lawsuit last week in federal court, alleging the lack of safety testing violates federal law and children’s constitutional rights.
The lawsuit names Susan Monarez, Ph.D., in her official capacity as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Attorney Rick Jaffe, who represents the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit “goes to the heart of the CDC’s childhood immunization program — a 72-plus dose medical intervention schedule that has never been tested.”
The CDC’s failures weren’t just about health, they carried massive financial and social costs too. Lockdowns crushed small businesses, kids lost years of education and mandates divided the nation. America needs institutions that protect both lives and livelihoods not ones driven…
— Eeva Mila (@WineyLover) September 1, 2025
The arrogance and self-importance of these @CDCgov bureaucrats is beyond belief. The reality is that the US would have been better off with no CDC at all during the pandemic. Their performance was a Chernobyl-level catastrophe. Their incompetence delayed the start of widespread testing at least a month, leading to panicked lockdowns. They forced useless masks over the faces of children for years. They delayed opening of schools for millions of kids. They misinformed the public on safety and efficacy of the vaccines, creating the rationale for the illegal mandates that divided the country. They rubber-stamped covid boosters for healthy kids in the absence of any science or rationale. They cannot credibly argue that the CDC saved a single life.
And their message is still based on fearmongering. It is all that they know and all that they have. Fear of unknown infectious disease "threats." They have learned nothing at all from the pandemic. Nothing.
[...]
Eeva Mila's full response:
The CDC’s failures weren’t just about health, they carried massive financial and social costs too. Lockdowns crushed small businesses, kids lost years of education and mandates divided the nation. America needs institutions that protect both lives and livelihoods not ones driven by fear and politics.
So, this "essay," reads much like the 51 "Intelligence" officials who signed a letter confirming that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. It gives the appearance of Monarez and her legal team setting the table for the oversight hearing Sens. Sanders and Cassidy will plan, along with Kennedy's scheduled Thursday meeting before the Senate Finance Committee. Ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) is already sharpening his knives.
“After the mass firings and resignations of respected senior scientists and public servants at CDC over the last 24 hours, it is more imperative than ever that Kennedy answer to the public and their representatives about the chaos, confusion, and harm his actions are inflicting on American families,” Wyden said. “Contrary to his promises of radical transparency, federal health agencies have been shrouded in secrecy and misinformation with no accountability to the public or Congress. Amid the largest cuts to American health care in history, Kennedy’s radical secrecy is setting up the nation for a health calamity.”
Newsflash to the senator: we are already in a health calamity; but for those with an agenda, that part is conveniently ignored. In the meantime, Kennedy stands firm in the decisions he made on these matters as well as his focus on doing actual investigation of root causes, not just putting up window dressing for political purposes or adhering Band-Aids over chronic wounds.
Last week RFK Jr. fired Susan Monarez, head of CDC.
— Lauren Lee (@sheislaurenlee) September 1, 2025
His comments spoke to this agenda exactly:
“CDC has on its website today that among the top 10 greatest medical accomplishments in history was abortion (because it keeps small families), fluoridation (giving kids a toxin),… pic.twitter.com/7fbCrTl1im
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member