Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell ABC News the agency has descended into turmoil as senior officials offer their resignations over the Trump administration’s effort to oust the agency’s new director.
A dozen CDC staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the mood inside the agency to ABC News, including some who said Thursday that the last 24 hours have left them questioning how much longer they should remain in their roles amid fears that the agency is, in the words of one staffer, “changing from a trusted scientific organization to a personal dictatorship” run by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“How are we supposed to function as an agency if everything has to run through a man who doesn’t believe in basic scientific principles?” a CDC staffer told ABC News. “[Kennedy] can keep saying buzzwords like ‘gold standard science’ and ‘restoring scientific integrity,’ but it means nothing if he fires anyone who disagrees with his personal ideology.”
The internal unrest comes as the Trump administration moved Wednesday to oust newly installed CDC Director Susan Monarez. The dispute began over demands from Kennedy and his principal deputy chief of staff for Monarez to support changes to COVID vaccine policy and the firing of high-level staff, a source familiar with the conversations told ABC News. Monarez would not commit to those demands.
HHS then announced that Monarez was “no longer director” of the CDC, touching off a wave of high-level resignations from CDC officials in protest and, ultimately, a fiery response later Wednesday evening from Monarez’s lawyers, who said she would not resign.
Four senior career officials at the CDC resigned following HHS’s statement about Monarez’s departure, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
Kennedy, at a rural health care event in Texas on Thursday, said he wouldn’t comment on Monarez or “personnel issues” — but criticized the CDC as a “troubled” agency that needed a leadership shake-up.
“There’s a lot of trouble at CDC, and it can require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it’s always been,” Kennedy said.
On Thursday, CDC staff began circulating plans for a “clap-out” for the four officials who resigned following Monarez’s attempted ouster, urging staff to show up and “demonstrate the strength and unity of our community in celebrating their remarkable service,” according to an email obtained by ABC News.
Hours before the planned clap-out, security escorted at least two of the officials — Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of the CDC center focusing on immunizations, and Dr. Deb Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer — out of agency’s headquarters, three sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
“They’re being treated like criminals,” a CDC staffer told ABC News upon learning of the move.
Dr. Dan Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and Jennifer Layden, director for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, were the other two top officials to resign.
Staffers told ABC News that while they support the officials’ decision to leave, the state of the agency has left them feeling hopeless.
“I have full respect for Drs. Houry, Jernigan, and Daskalakis, and maybe they had no choice, but we feel hopeless now,” a CDC employee told ABC News. “Hopeless for our own research and work to continue, hopeless for our own personal futures, but most importantly hopeless for the future of America’s children and what sort of awful future we are setting them up to inherit — and for what gain or profit?”
Another CDC staffer said, “I’m glad to see the pushback from senior leadership standing up for public health — I’m also upset and concerned about what this means for the fate of CDC and the health of the people we serve.”
Meanwhile, the state of affairs inside the agency has left some staffers questioning if they should join their colleagues and either protest or leave.
“At what point do we walk out?” a staffer said. “I know we all feel like we are doing the right thing by staying and fighting the good fight. But what if we go on strike? Like, we will not come back until RFK is fired?”
“I personally am just so burnt out,” another staffer said. “I don’t know if this job is worth my sanity.”
On Thursday afternoon, staffers gathered to say goodbye to Houry, Daskalakis and Jernigan, who returned to headquarters to bid farewell to their colleagues.
Supporters held signs that said “Fire RFK,” “CDC saves lives,” and “Leaders like these don’t grow on trees.”
The three officials received a warm welcome as they slowly made their way through the crowd, accepting hugs, flowers, and pats on the back.
“The last 24 hours has been a blur. We agreed to do this together. We’ve been talking about it for months, and the past few days, it was just escalating,” Houry told reporters.
“When the three of us do it together, it’s more powerful, and it just shows the state of our agency,” she said.
Daskalakis committed to speaking up loudly from outside the agency.
“You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America,” he said to loud applause from the gathered employees. “And we are going to be your loudest advocates.”
Houry, Daskalakis and Jernigan then walked to a street corner near the CDC’s campus that has been turned into a memorial for slain Officer David Rose, who died two weeks ago defending CDC headquarters against a gunman who fired hundreds of rounds into the buildings — driven, Monarez had said in a note to staffers, by misinformation.
With tears in their eyes, they laid down their bouquets and hugged one another. Then they turned to say goodbye to more colleagues.