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Less than a month after being sworn in, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez is refusing to step down following the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) announcement that she had been removed from the position.
Monarez’s attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said they are representing her and stated she “has neither resigned nor yet been fired.”
In a statement released on social media, the attorneys accused HHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of politicizing public health.
“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” the statement said.
“For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”