Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana issued a warning after the Trump administration announced it was firing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) head Susan Monarez.

Newsweek reached out to Cassidy’s office, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.

Why It Matters

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made major changes to the federal government’s vaccine policies. These changes include removing members of a key vaccine advisory panel and ending funding for some mRNA vaccines. Kennedy has also added new restrictions to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The White House said Monarez was being removed because she is “not aligned with the president’s agenda.” Critics, however, warned that her firing could weaken scientific standards at the federal government and the CDC.

What To Know

Cassidy, who used to work as a physician, responded to Monarez’s firing and the resignation of three other senior CDC officials in a post on X, issuing a warning to the administration.

“These high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee,” Cassidy wrote, referring to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which he chairs.

He also called for the CDC vaccine adviser meeting to be postponed because of the agency’s current problems, according to a statement reported by The Washington Post.

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted,” Cassidy wrote.

He added that if the meeting goes ahead, any recommendations should be “rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”

Cassidy supported Monarez’s nomination to lead the CDC.

“America needs a CDC Director who will reform the agency and work to restore public trust in health institutions. With decades of proven experience as a public health official, Dr. Monarez is ready to take on this challenge and I look forward to working with her,” he said after her confirmation last month.

While Cassidy has sometimes criticized Kennedy’s approach to vaccines and public health, he supported Kennedy’s nomination to lead the department after receiving commitments on “protecting the public health benefit of vaccination.”

In June, Cassidy also raised concerns about some of the administration’s appointments to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, saying some appointees “do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology, or immunology,” in a post to X.

The three senior CDC officials who resigned on Wednesday are: Dr. Debra Houry, deputy director; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, head of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Monarez’s attorney, Mark Zaid, wrote on X that she “has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she was fired.”

“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. 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,” he wrote.

What People Are Saying

Former CDC Director Tom Frieden wrote on X: “Public health is under assault. The purge of CDC leadership, people with decades of experience guiding the nation’s response to health threats, dismantles the very programs and direction that keep Americans safe from infectious diseases, chronic illness, injuries, and violence. Losing institutional memory and expertise means weakening our frontline defense.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico: “As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. 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.”

The HHS posted on X: “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. Secretary Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC, who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, wrote on X: “Tonight’s events are yet more evidence that putting a quack like Bobby Kennedy in charge of public health was a grave error. The Trump Administration has been engaged for months in a campaign to destroy the CDC, America’s preeminent disease-fighting agency. The Administration’s extremism and incompetence are putting lives at risk.”

What Happens Next

It is not yet clear whether legal challenges will be filed over Monarez’s firing. President Trump has not said who he would like to replace her as CDC head.

The public health community is rallying behind the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it fights back against new attacks to its integrity — this time against its leaders.

On Thursday, public health supporters, CDC staff and the Atlanta community united to support top officials who resigned this week in opposition to actions by the Trump administration, lining up by the hundreds and cheering as the leaders exited an agency building. The crowd included dozens of members of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, who in unison saluted the health leaders in a show of strength.

The exodus came after newly appointed CDC director Susan Monarez, PhD, was fired Wednesday by Robert Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services. Monarez’ attorneys said she was removed for refusing to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts she chose, protecting the public health over serving a political agenda.”

Monarez pushed back against Kennedy’s continuing attempts to undermine vaccines, rebuffing his request to stand behind him and his advisors as they work to restrict access to the proven, life-saving public health tools, according to The New York Times.

APHA and the public health community blasted Monarez’ firing, with APHA Executive Director Georges Benjamin, MD, reiterating his call for Kennedy’s immediate removal.

“His tenure has been marked by chaos, disorganization and a blatant disregard for science and evidence-based public health,” Benjamin said in a statement. “Pushing Monarez out underscores his administrative incompetence and his disdain for the expertise that the public and our public health agencies rely on. RFK Jr. must be removed from his position.”

Other longtime leading CDC officials submitted their resignations in protest of the Trump administration actions and exited the agency this week. Leaving the building together Thursday were Debra Houry, MD, MPH, the agency’s chief medical officer; Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease. Jennifer Layden, MD, PhD, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Science and Technology also resigned.

“What makes us great at CDC is following the science,” Jernigan told reporters Thursday as he left the building. “So let’s get the politics out of public health. Let’s get back to the objectivity and let the science lead us, because that’s how we get back to the best decisions for public health.”

Kennedy’s interference with CDC will cost lives, Wendy Armstrong, MD, FIDSA, a clinician who leads the infectious disease division at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in a news conference the same day. Clinicians and public health departments rely on CDC for expertise on the latest information, but that is eroding, she said. CDC updates on bird flu, measles, COVID-19 and food-borne illnesses have mostly stopped.

“We don’t know what is out there because there is no surveillance,” Armstrong said.

Local public health organizations are also experiencing the downstream effects of the loss of expertise at CDC as well as massive cuts to public health funding by the Trump administration.

“We have lost several generations, those on staff and those in training (at CDC),” Armstrong said. “The impact of what we are seeing will last for decades.”

On Thursday, the White House named Kennedy’s deputy secretary, Jim O’Neill, as acting CDC director, replacing Monarez. O’Neill is a former Silicon Valley technology investor with no public health or medical experience.

As she left the building, Houry, a 20-year leader at CDC, called on Congress to intervene and stand behind public health, science and the agency.

“We need to have ethics back…We need to be able to do (our work) without interference,” Houry told reporters. “I believe in our scientists. We need our leaders above us to believe in CDC.”

Photo caption: From left, Daniel Jernigan, former director of CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease; Debra Houry, CDC’s former chief medical officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, former director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases pose for photos outside CDC’s Atlanta headquarters Thursday after all three resigned their positions this week. (Screenshot by Michele Late)

Former officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speak out after an exodus. New details emerge about the Minnesota school shooter. Trump’s tariffs that target a nearly century-old exemption on small goods come into effect. And the impact of Deion Sanders in college football.

Here’s what to know today.

Former CDC director felt pressure to sign off on policy ‘that flew in the face of science’

Details have begun to emerge about what led up to the firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez and the exodus of other top officials in the agency. Former acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser said on the day she was fired, Monarez had suggested she was going to be forced to sign off on new vaccine recommendations for the upcoming meeting of the agency’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Monarez had said she would never “rubber-stamp ACIP recommendations that flew in the face of science,” according to Besser.

One of the officials wrote in his resignation letter that a document related to the vaccine committee “ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.”

Hundreds of current and former CDC staffers, other public health workers and private citizens gathered outside the agency’s Atlanta headquarters yesterday, a day after Monarez’s firing, to show their support.

The White House appointed Health and Human Services deputy Jim O’Neill as the new acting CDC director.

Read the full story.

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Details emerge about victims and shooter in Minnesota school attack

The two children killed in the shooting Wednesday at Annunciation Catholic School have been identified by family as 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. Both families shared details about them and expressed grief for the Annunciation community and gratefulness for first responders and school staff.

Authorities are discovering more about the shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after firing over 100 rounds into the church. Though the shooter left behind disturbing social media posts, there was no evidence suggesting she was legally barred from purchasing a firearm nor that any alarms were sounded as she amassed an arsenal that included the rifle, the pistol and the shotgun used in the attack.

Westman attended Annunciation Catholic School, and her mother worked at the church. She had an obsession with the idea of killing children, according to Joseph Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooter left anti-religious references in her “manifesto” and written on her firearms.

Read the full story.

Trump tariffs hit small goods from other countries

U.S. shoppers ordering smaller goods from abroad will soon be met with notices about delays, cost spikes or even order cancellations.

For nearly a century, the U.S. allowed de minimis exemptions on items worth less than $800 to be shipped to the country duty and tariff free. Now, they will be charged either the tariff rates the U.S. has on their countries of origin or flat fees of $80 to $200.

De minimis parcels made up 97% of overall shipping volume over the last three fiscal years.

Many European nations, alongside Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand, have announced suspensions of U.S.-bound shipments in advance of the official termination date for the exemption. U.S. e-commerce hubs like Etsy and eBay have posted notices warning customers about shipping disruptions.

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Hate groups and their online speech were once considered a fringe part of the web. But because of relaxed moderation efforts by tech companies, such groups and their rhetoric have found large audiences, and paydays, on mainstream platforms like YouTube, Roblox and Instagram.

The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) found “hate not only spreading across the internet but becoming more profitable,” in a recently published report. The foundation said that monetization efforts that once existed on the edges of the internet could now be found in popular spaces like cryptocurrencies, crowdfunding, livestreaming and merchandising. The cash generated on tech platforms serves as the lifeblood for many fringe groups.

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Read All About It

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Staff Pick: The ‘Deion Sanders effect’ is spreading across college football

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What makes a successful college football coach in 2025? Some believe that criteria is changing, to the point that no coaching experience is required.

When the new season begins this weekend, former NFL stars Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson will lead teams despite little-to-no experience with a headset, hires many attribute to the “Deion Sanders effect.” Since the former NFL star changed the trajectory at several universities despite scant time previously coaching, other schools have followed suit.

I wanted to understand the learning curve such first-time coaches face, and how they have spent the offseason preparing not only to run practice, but operate within a budget and forge relationships with university leaders. It’s a big job — and Sanders himself has helped many prepare for it. — Andrew Greif, sports reporter

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One of the four health agency leaders forced out of the CDC has blasted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks over his use of the term “pregnant people.”

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who says he spent his career as a gay rights supporter, was outraged at attempts by the Trump administration to erase transgender people from the public eye.

Daskalakis resigned from his position as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on Wednesday in response to the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was appointed to the role by President Donald Trump.

Former CDC leader Demetre Daskalakis outside its Atlanta headquarters. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Daskalakis responded to Leavitt’s remarks on his use of the term “pregnant people,” telling Collins, “I accept the note and I don’t care.”

At her press briefing on Thursday, Leavitt was asked if there would be further departures from the CDC following the firing of Monarez and the resignation of three agency leaders, including Daskalakis.

“Not to my knowledge,” Leavitt responded. “I understand there were a few other individuals who resigned after the firing of Ms. Monarez. One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as pregnant people, so that’s not someone we want in this administration anyway.”

In Daskalakis’ resignation letter, which he posted to X, he slammed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s decision to end COVID vaccine mandates. “The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”

My resignation letter from CDC.

Dear Dr. Houry,

I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business.… — DrDemetre (@dr_demetre) August 27, 2025

Given the chance to respond to Leavitt’s remarks by Collins on the Thursday The Source, Daskalakis said, “I have for my entire career been an advocate for the LGBTQ community… I find it outrageous that this administration is trying to erase transgender people.”

“I very specifically used the term pregnant people, and very specifically added my pronouns at the end of my resignation letter to make the point that I am defying this terrible strategy at trying to erase people and not allowing them to express their identities,” he continued.

“So I accept the note from the press secretary, and counter that with: I don‘t care.”

Transgender Americans have been in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs since he took office, with the president issuing a presidential action on inauguration day entitled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Other attacks on transgender people from the Trump administration and its allies include bans on the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports, bans on gender affirming care for minors, and what critics describe as attempts from the Department of Health and Human Services to rebrand conversion therapy for transgender youth.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration directed 40 states, five U.S. territories, and Washington, D.C. to remove references to transgender people from their sex education programs or lose federal funding.

Most recently, several prominent MAGA supporters took advantage of the fact that a 23-year-old transgender woman carried out a school shooting in Minneapolis to demonize trans people, calling them a “ticking time bomb” and arguing “America has a transgender problem.”

In the six months since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office as the health secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has withered, losing thousands of employees, about half of its budget and contracts, and much of its authority over the nation’s vaccine policies.

This week, as Mr. Kennedy ousted the agency’s new director and precipitated the resignation of four other leaders, experts in public health began asking questions unthinkable just a few months ago: Is the C.D.C. dying? And if so, what does that mean for Americans?

In interviews, a dozen public health experts, along with seven former high-ranking officials, described the C.D.C. as badly wounded and fast losing its legitimacy. It can still be salvaged, they said, but only if Mr. Kennedy listens to scientists and restores some of its crucial functions.

“It’s got, like, a heart rhythm that’s not viable at the moment,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who led the C.D.C.’s center for respiratory diseases until he resigned this week. “If it’s not shocked out of it now, it may not survive.”