ATLANTA — Jim O’Neill, a top deputy to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an administration official confirmed to the Associated Press.
The news comes as CDC workers walked out Thursday in protest of former CDC Director Susan Monarez being ousted from the post.
Monarez is fighting to keep her job.
Four senior managers resigned in protest of Monarez’s firing and Kennedy’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Three of those managers, Dr. Deb Houry, Dr. Demetrie Daskalakis, and Dr. Dan Jernigan, were at the rally.
“You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America. And we’re going to be your loudest advocates,” Daskalakis said.
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Jernigan told the crowd it’s time to take politics out of the CDC.
“What makes us great, the CDC is following the science, and so let’s get the politics out of public health,” Jernigan said.
Kennedy announced the firing on Wednesday, but it wasn’t official until the White House confirmed it on Thursday afternoon, saying, “Monarez is not aligned with the president’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.”
Monarez and Kennedy conflicted over his new COVID-19 vaccine policy, limiting the number of people eligible to receive it.
Kennedy addressed the firing during a news conference in Texas on Thursday.
“There’s a lot of trouble at CDC, and it’s going to 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. I’m very confident in the political staff that we have down there now that they’re going to be able to accomplish that and ensure the competent functionality of that agency,” Kennedy said.
After the cheering, Channel 2’s Richard Elliot asked Houry about their decision to resign in protest.
“We’ve been talking about it for months, and in the past few days, this has escalated. We literally got on a Teams chat together. I’m their boss, so they submitted their letters to me, and I said, ‘I’m submitting mine.’ This is the deal, and we did it together,” Houry said.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff released a statement about Monarez’s firing, saying: “The administration’s extremism and incompetence are putting lives at risk.”
Houry said she hopes this is a tipping point in the controversy surrounding the CDC and that Congress acts to reappropriate the funds they say the CDC needs to continue its mission.