Inside
the C.D.C., a Growing Sense of Despair
After six
months of turmoil, the loss of the new director and a round of high-profile
resignations marks a new low, some employees said.
Apoorva
Mandavilli
By
Apoorva Mandavilli
Aug. 28,
2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/health/cdc-employees-director-trump-rfk-jr.html
For
employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the hits keep
coming.
The
Covid-19 pandemic made the agency a frequent target of lawmakers and segments
of the general public. Events took an even darker turn when a gunman opened
fire on C.D.C. headquarters in Atlanta this month, spraying hundreds of bullets
and killing a police officer.
And on
Wednesday, employees reeled from news that the agency’s new director, Susan
Monarez, had been fired after less than a month on the job — followed by her
announcement that she was refusing to leave.
On
Thursday morning, three senior officials were escorted from the building after
announcing on Wednesday that they would quit over Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy’s vaccine policies. Staff members gathered outside the C.D.C.’s gates
to celebrate the leaders who had resigned.
“It’s
brutal,” one employee said. “Everyone is in tears because we love and care
about this agency so much.”
Mr.
Kennedy has long held the agency in contempt, accusing its scientists of
corruption and incompetence, and of hiding what he believes are links between
some vaccines and autism.
He once
compared immunizing children to practices in Nazi death camps.
“There’s
a lot of trouble at C.D.C., and it’s going to require getting rid of some
people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture,”
Mr. Kennedy said at a news briefing on Thursday.
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The
president — who previously praised Dr. Monarez as “an incredible mother and
public servant” — was silent.
But late
Thursday afternoon, a senior administration official said, Mr. Kennedy’s
deputy, Jim O’Neill, a former biotechnology executive, was installed as the
C.D.C.’s acting director. The Washington Post first reported the news.
In
interviews, about two dozen C.D.C. employees said that the mood inside the
agency was bleak. Some blamed Mr. Kennedy for what they felt was a campaign
waged against science.
Others
said they were terrified for the future of the C.D.C. and the nation’s health.
Some said they were in shock. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of
retaliation.
“We’re
scared for ourselves and for the country,” one said.
At one
small group meeting Thursday morning, two people broke down in tears, according
to an employee who was present. At another meeting, a senior leader who has
always stayed calm under pressure was visibly shaking, another scientist said.
Several
groups of employees were discussing striking before a colleague reminded them
that strikes by federal workers were felonies punishable by a permanent ban
from federal service.
Many
employees had been skeptical of the ability of Dr. Monarez, an infectious
disease expert, to defend the agency. After she refused to fire senior leaders
or to rubber-stamp what she felt were unscientific vaccine policies, they
changed their minds.
Staffers
also were contending with fresh rumors that as many as 100 people will soon
lose their jobs.
The
C.D.C. had already weathered a downsizing in April, losing entire divisions and
thousands of employees. (Some were later rehired.) Some C.D.C. leaders were
placed on administrative leave.
Others
left, saying they feared for the lives of Americans if Mr. Kennedy were to
continue his course. “I can’t imagine who is going to stay at this point if
they have any alternative,” one staff member said.
The
latest blow arrived on Wednesday as three of the agency’s highest-profile
officials resigned. The officials all dealt with vaccines in some way.
“These
colleagues are the X-Men of public health — courageous, thoughtful, and
dedicated to using the best research and policies to answer lifesaving
questions,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, who served as director of the C.D.C.’s
center for H.I.V. and sexually transmitted infections. He has been on
administrative leave since April.
On
Thursday afternoon, hundreds of C.D.C. employees, including some in full
service uniforms, gathered outside the agency, cheering and clapping for the
three officials who had quit.
Some
carried signs saying “Save the C.D.C.” and thanking the officials for their
service. Hundreds more watched online, reacting with heart emojis.
The
officials who resigned were upset in particular over Mr. Kennedy’s attempts to
undermine vaccines and cut back on those that Americans can access easily.
Dr.
Daniel Jernigan, who led the center that oversees emerging diseases and vaccine
safety, said he decided to resign before he was dismissed, in part hoping that
doing so would allow Dr. Monarez to continue as the director.
“If we
were the problem, and she had the opportunity to actually stay, removing us as
a problem I think was something that we were willing to do,” he said.
The other
officials who left on Thursday were Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s chief medical
officer, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the center that oversees
respiratory illnesses and issues vaccine recommendations. They said their
concerns had escalated sharply after new members of the agency’s vaccine
advisory panel said that they would revisit the childhood and adolescent
vaccination schedules in the fall.
The panel
may curtail access to several vaccines. “It really is transparent that these
decisions have all been predestined,” Dr. Daskalakis said.
Apoorva
Mandavilli reports on science and global health for The Times, with a focus on
infectious diseases and pandemics and the public health agencies that try to
manage them.
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