RFK Jr. warns CDC 'in trouble,' promises fixes as director refuses to step down
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signaled a dramatic course-correction at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday after Director Susan Monarez's reported firing, referring to the agency as "in trouble."
"We are fixing it," he told "Fox & Friends."
"And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore."
Monarez is refusing to leave her position as director of the CDC after HHS announced she had been removed from the role less than a month after she was sworn in.
CDC DIRECTOR SUSAN MONAREZ REFUSES TO BE FIRED AS OTHER OFFICIALS CALL IT QUITS
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a swearing-in ceremony for Dr. Mehmet Oz as the Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator in the Oval Office at the White House on April 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kennedy is now insisting the Trump administration is "fixing" the CDC amid shakeups involving former Director Susan Monarez. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital that other top CDC officials, including National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Daniel Jernigan, Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry and National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Demetre Daskalakis tendered their resignations.
Attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, who said they are representing Monarez, claimed she "has neither resigned nor yet been fired."
"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 attorneys wrote in a statement published on social media.
"For that reason, 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."
ABOUT 600 CDC WORKERS TERMINATED AFTER COURT CLEARS PART OF TRUMP ADMIN RESTRUCTURING PLAN
CDC Director Susan Monarez seen testifying during her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 25, 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Kennedy declined to comment on Monarez's attorneys' allegations that he and his department have set their sights on "weaponizing public health for political gain" and have put "millions of American lives at risk," insisting it would be "inappropriate" to comment on personnel issues.
"What I will say is, President Trump has very ambitious hopes for CDC right now," he said.
"CDC has problems. We saw the misinformation coming out of COVID, they got the testing wrong, they got the social distancing, the masks [and] the school closures that did so much harm to the American people [wrong]…
"We need to look at the priorities of the agency if there's really a deeply embedded – I would say – malaise at the agency, and we need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump's broad ambitions to restore this agency to gold standard science and to what it was when we were growing up, which was the most respected health agency in the world."
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HHS, when previously reached for comment on the matter, directed Fox News Digital to the agency's response shared on its official X account.
"Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," HHS said.
"We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. Secretary Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad."
Fox News' Alec Schemmel and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.