CDC leaders who resigned were escorted out of agency Brenda Goodman, CNNAugust 29, 2025 at 1:25 AM CDC officials who resigned this week were escorted from the agency on Thursday morning.
- - CDC leaders who resigned were escorted out of agency
Brenda Goodman, CNNAugust 29, 2025 at 1:25 AM
CDC officials who resigned this week were escorted from the agency on Thursday morning. - Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
Top officials who resigned their positions at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the ouster of the agency's director were escorted out of the building Thursday morning.
The shakeup at CDC comes at the Senate Committee on Finance announced US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will testify on September 4 about President Donald Trump's health agenda.
Amid abrupt changes that have left the CDC leaderless, agency staff had been planning a show of respect called a "clap out" Thursday afternoon for the officials who resigned, including Dr. Deb Houry, the chief medical officer, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, chief of vaccines and respiratory diseases chief, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and data chief Dr. Jennifer Layden.
Instead, the officials were escorted out of the building, according to Houry, who stressed that they were escorted out "by friends."
Messages circulated by staff said they would still hold a ceremony at 3 p.m. outside of the agency's Atlanta offices.
CNN has reached out to HHS for comment about the officials who resigned.
Wednesday night, White House spokesman Kush Desai said the White House had terminated the agency's director, Dr. Susan Monarez, from her position.
Monarez's attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said they rejected the notification their client had received. "Our client was notified tonight by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired. As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her," Zaid and Lowell said in a statement. "For this reason, we reject notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position."
An acting CDC director has not yet been announced.
Even as the CDC leaders prepare to say their final goodbyes to the agency, the medical community is reeling from the changes.
"Last night's removal of CDC Director Susan Monarez and the resignations of other CDC leaders are highly alarming at a challenging moment for public health. This destabilization comes at a time when the CDC's credibility and leadership are more essential than ever," said Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. "The AMA is deeply concerned that this turmoil leaves us highly susceptible to public health threats."
"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is systematically dismantling the public health infrastructure that keeps us safe from pandemics and vaccine-responsive diseases like Covid-19," wrote Dr. Peter Lurie, who is president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a written statement on the departures.
In a Thursday appearance on Fox News, Kennedy said little about the shakeup at CDC, saying it was inappropriate to talk about "personnel issues."
"There's really a deeply, 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 for this agency," Kennedy said. "It may be that some people should not be working there anymore."
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