The White House says the director of America’s public health agency has been sacked less than a month after she was sworn in.
The ousting of Susan Monarez from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has triggered a wave of resignations, amid backlash against health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Earlier this month, the vaccine-sceptic announced $500m (£375.8m) worth of cuts to their development in the US, having sacked all members of the CDC’s expert advisory panel on jabs.
He’s also ditched federal recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children to have COVID shots.
Announcing Dr Monarez’s departure on Wednesday night, a White House spokesman said she was not “aligned with the president’s agenda of making America healthy again”.
Her lawyers said she had not been informed of her sacking and denied she had resigned.
They accused RFK Jr of “weaponising public health”.
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Four other senior officials have quit, Reuters news agency reports.
They are chief medical officer Debra Houry, the director of the national centre for immunisation Demetre Daskalakis, public health data office director Jen Layden, and emerging infections diseases director Daniel Jernigan.
Dr Monarez was only sworn in by the US Senate in July.
An uneasy relationship with RFK Jr was made obvious from the beginning. In her confirmation hearing, she said she hadn’t seen any evidence linking vaccines with autism – a discredited theory the health secretary has promoted.
