President Trump has chosen Susan Monarez, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to lead the body permanently.
The president withdrew the first candidate of Dr. Dave Weldon, just a few hours before listening to confirmation. If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Monarez, an infectious researcher, will be the first non -physicist to lead the body over more than 50 years.
“Americans have lost confidence in the CDC because of political prejudice and destructive mismanagement,” the president writes in Truth Social, adding that Dr. Monarez will work with Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“As an incredible mother and dedicated civil servant, Dr. Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities and our future,” Mr Trump wrote.
Dr. Monarez, 50, took over the position of Director a few days after taking over Mr Trump’s duties in January, leaving his perch as deputy director of a new biomedical research federal organization created during Biden’s administration.
Dr. Monarez was expected to serve up to Mr Trump’s first choice for the job, Dr. Weldon could be confirmed. However, after Mr Trump decided to withdraw the candidate, Republican assistants in the Senate said Dr. Weldon failed to impress them with a plan for the organization.
Dr. Weldon accused two Republican Senators – Susan Collins of Maine and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy – to turn against him.
Some experts said Dr. Monarez marked a strong contrast with Dr. Weldon, whose skeptical views on childhood vaccines were aligned with those of Mr Kennedy and raised the medical community.
Mr Kennedy’s response to a growing measles epidemic in Texas and New Mexico, including the lukewarm composition of vaccination, has caused significant criticism. Dr. Monarez is a bio-security expert who approved the Covid vaccines and its choice can signal a growing impatience with anti-vaccination.
“He has a strong reputation as a stable researcher and a specialist in infectious diseases,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Union.
“He clearly understands the public health and the role of playing government public health,” he said. “I believe that the Public Health Community can work together in a positive way.”
But Dr. Monarez has spent weeks away from Atlanta, where the organization is headquartered. He did not attend the meetings of all the hands of the organization or did not provide assurance to employees dealing with the upheaval of recent weeks, according to several CDC officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity for the fear of retaliation.
A department of comments on the organization’s internal website was quickly deleted as staff members began to note that they wanted more communication than it.
The Directors of the Center interpret the President’s executive orders and various court instructions with minimal inputs by the manager, officials said.
Instead, the office of the Director of the Director has served as a pipeline for instructions from the White House and the Ministry of Health and Human Services.
For example, it works with the cost cutting initiative, known as a government efficiency department to plan reductions in the organization, according to a former employee with knowledge of the matter.
And when Trump’s administration ordered the CDC to remove the pages from its website containing phrases such as “LGBTQ” and “Transgender”, Dr. Monarez did not resist or attempted to maintain significant data, according to three people with knowledge of events, who spoke under the condition.
