Monarez' legal team disputes HHS' claim their client is no longer CDC director

Embattled Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez' legal team on Wednesday threw a curveball by declaring their client was never notified that she was fired from the agency and has not voluntarily resigned.

The twist comes after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier Wednesday announced that Monarez was no longer in the role of CDC director less than a month into her term. 

Monarez' lawyers Abbe David Lowell and Mark S. Zaid said in a joint statement that their client “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.”

The conflicting perspectives come amid an alleged internal struggle between Monarez and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding vaccinations, according to the New York Times, and the alleged weaponization of public health.

Other former CDC officials have also strongly rejected the Trump administration's perceived weaponization of the public health system, with four long-term CDC officials resigning in the wake of news reports that Monarez was out of the agency.

“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health," one of the former officials, Demetre Daskalakis who served as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, wrote in his resignation letter.

The Trump administration has not commented on Lowell's and Zaid's latest statement at time of publishing.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.