ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Susan Monarez, the director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is out after less than a month on the job, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Monarez, 50, was the agency’s 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.

She was sworn in on July 31 — less than a month ago, making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the history of the 79-year-old agency.

“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote on social media.

“Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. “Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.”

Attorneys representing Monarez said she has neither resigned nor 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. For that, she has been targeted,” attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell said.

The attorneys said she has not been fired and “as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”

Her departure coincided with the resignations of at least three top CDC officials. The list includes Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s deputy director; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, head of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In an email seen by an AP reporter, Houry lamented the crippling effects on the agency from planned budget cuts, reorganization plans and firings.

“I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency,” she wrote.

She also noted the rise of misinformation about vaccines during the current Trump administration, and alluded to new limits on CDC communications.

“For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations,” she wrote.

In his resignation letter, Daskalakis wrote: “I am unable to 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.”

HHS officials did not immediately respond to questions about the resignations, or to the statement from Monarez’s lawyers.

Some public health experts decried the exodus.

“The loss of experienced, world-class infectious disease experts at CDC is directly related to the failed leadership of extremists currently in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services,” said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease researcher.

“These departures are a serious loss for America. They make our country less safe and less prepared for public health emergencies,” he said.

The union representing CDC workers, AFGE Local 2883, said, “We commend her, not just for doing the right thing, but for doing the hard thing by standing against disinformation. She chose science over politics. This is the leader that CDC needs and our nation deserves.

Earlier today, we were shocked to hear of the sudden resignation of multiple experienced public health leaders at CDC—people who devoted their lives to preserving, protecting, and promoting the health of the American people. Many felt forced to walk away from the jobs they loved because politics left them no choice. They deserve our thanks and our respect. After Dr. Monarez’s statement that she is not resigning, we hope some of these leaders can remain if they choose. We look forward to continuing the fight alongside them. Once again, the chaos this evening occurred with an unsurprising lack of transparency. But the motives themselves are crystal clear: public health itself is under attack."

The CDC’s Decatur headquarters is still reeling from a shooting that took place on Aug. 8, the end of Monarez’s first full week on the job. She met with CDC staffers last week.

A 30-year-old man from Kennesaw blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal. He killed a police officer and fired more than 180 shots into CDC buildings before killing himself.

No one at CDC was injured, but it shell-shocked a staff that already had low morale from other recent changes.

“It was an attack on all of us. It was devastating,” said Monarez.

“We’re going to have to go through a lot of healing, and it will take time. I know people are excited. They want to get back to where we were, where we’re going to really try to move public health forward in an inspirational, innovative way, but now we have to deal with this, because it is our new reality,” said Monarez.

This year it’s been hit by widespread staff cuts, resignations of key officials and heated controversy over long-standing CDC vaccine policies upended by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

During her Senate confirmation process, Monarez told senators that she values vaccines, public health interventions and rigorous scientific evidence. But she largely dodged questions about whether those positions put her at odds with Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who has criticized and sought to dismantle some of the agency’s previous protocols and decisions.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) responded to Monarez’s supposed firing, saying “President Trump and Sec Kennedy are trying to purge anyone who stands up against their anti-science agenda at the CDC. They’re risking disease outbreak and another pandemic just to advance their own extremist goals.”

The Washington Post first reported she was ousted, citing unnamed sources within the Trump administration.

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