The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found itself at the heart of a dramatic upheaval, as internal discord and a wave of resignations have rocked the nation’s leading public health agency. Over just two days—August 27 and 28, 2025—the CDC endured an unprecedented crisis, triggered by the Trump administration’s attempt to oust newly appointed Director Susan Monarez and impose sweeping changes on vaccine policy. The fallout, reported by outlets including ABC News, Associated Press, and Axios, has left the agency’s future uncertain, its staff demoralized, and the country’s public health infrastructure under threat.
The turmoil began on August 27, when the Trump administration, acting through Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., moved to remove Monarez just four weeks into her tenure. According to ABC News, this effort was accompanied by demands for changes to COVID-19 vaccine policy and the sacking of high-level staff. Monarez refused to comply, setting off a chain reaction that would see four senior career officials—Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Dr. Debra Houry, Dr. Dan Jernigan, and Jennifer Layden—resign in protest.
“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?” one CDC staffer told ABC News, referring to Kennedy. The mood was described as "hopeless," with employees questioning their future at the agency and expressing deep concern for the integrity of public health work. “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 employee lamented.
As the dust settled on the night of Monarez’s attempted ouster, her lawyers issued a fiery response, insisting she had not resigned and could only be fired directly by President Donald Trump. “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,” said Mark S. Zaid, one of Monarez’s attorneys, in a statement posted to social media. The legal status of Monarez’s role remained murky, but the administration acted as if she was no longer in charge, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating, “the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”
The crisis reached a public crescendo on August 28, as dozens of CDC staff and leaders staged a “clap-out” protest outside the agency’s Atlanta headquarters—a gesture of solidarity for the departing officials. The event, covered live by the Associated Press and Axios, saw colleagues holding signs reading “Fire RFK,” “CDC saves lives,” and “Leaders like these don’t grow on trees.” The three prominent officials—Houry, Daskalakis, and Jernigan—returned to headquarters to bid farewell, receiving hugs, flowers, and heartfelt applause. “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.”
Daskalakis, who had served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was particularly outspoken in his resignation. In a letter posted online, he wrote that he could not “serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.” He singled out Kennedy’s “unilateral purging of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and the CDC’s revoked endorsement of COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women” as examples of the harm being done. Later, addressing his colleagues, Daskalakis declared, “You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America. And we are going to be your loudest advocates.”
The protest was not just a show of support for the resigning officials—it was also a reflection of the deep anxiety and frustration felt by those who remained. As Axios reported, the “clap out” was the only official action available to federal employees, who are barred from striking or walking out. “At what point do we walk out?” one staffer wondered aloud to ABC News. “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?”
Behind the scenes, the CDC has been reeling from a series of policy changes and budget cuts since Kennedy took over as HHS Secretary eight months earlier. According to Axios, the agency has endured layoffs, grant terminations, and the abrupt scaling back of critical programs—such as the foodborne illness surveillance system, which NBC News revealed is now monitoring only two of the eight germs it previously tracked. These changes have been accompanied by a growing sense of fear and harassment. Earlier in August, a shooting at CDC headquarters, which staff linked to misinformation and hostility fueled by the administration, left Officer David Rose dead. Monarez, in a note to staff, cited misinformation as a driving force behind the violence.
On August 20, more than 750 HHS employees went public with a letter accusing Kennedy of contributing to harassment and violence against government employees. The internal crisis, simmering for months, reached its boiling point with the events of late August.
Kennedy, for his part, has remained defiant. Speaking at a rural health care event in Texas, he declined to comment directly on Monarez or personnel issues but criticized the CDC as a “troubled” agency in need of “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, as reported by ABC News.
As the departing officials laid flowers at a memorial for Officer Rose near the CDC campus, the mood was somber but resolute. The gesture was a poignant reminder of the stakes involved—not just for the agency’s staff, but for the country’s public health. For now, the CDC faces a crossroads, its mission and morale tested as never before. Whether it can recover its footing—and its reputation—remains an open question, one that will shape the health and safety of millions in the years to come.
