WASHINGTON – After the chaotic withdrawal of the previous nominee of President Trump to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the president selected the acting director of the CDC, Susan Monarez, to lead the agency.
Monarez is an old biosafility expert with ties with the flagship Health Initiative of former President Biden, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. The CDC is in the sights of federal cuts, frustration about the COVID-19 response and a Make America Remory Reme Movement that has attracted the agency’s vaccine and food guidance.
The White House moved in his original CDC candidate, former congress member Dave Weldon, hours before his hearing by his senate because of concern that Republican senators would not confirm him. The Republican from Florida has long questioned the safety of measles vaccines and argued that the CDC did not actively investigate connections between vaccines and autism, a position of health and secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Monarez would be the first CDC nominated to face the confirmation of the Senate. CBS reported Trump was planning to select Monarez earlier on Monday.
The budget of the CDC is around $ 9 billion, a small piece of federal health expenditure. But the agency plays a major role in public health campaigns, such as efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and having children vaccinated. The CDC is currently helping in the response to the Texas Mazles outbreak and fights with the spread of the H5N1 -Vogeliep virus.
“Americans have lost confidence in the CDC because of political bias and disastrous mismanagement,” Trump said in one after The Truth Socially announces the choice on the social media site.
Working with Kennedy: “They will prioritize accountability, high standards and disease prevention to finally tackle chronic disease pidemy and make America healthy again!” Trump continued.
Monarez has a long track record in the government service that extends to the board of former President George W. Bush, when she worked as an adviser to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or Barda.
Luciana Borio, a senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, worked together with Monarez in the early days of Barda. Borio was enthusiastic about the nomination of Monarez and described her as a dedicated and experienced civil servant with a deep network of relationships between the government.
“I am just enthusiastic because she is someone who has dedicated her life to public service, to our biomedical research company, and she is someone who is extraordinarily organized,” said Borio, who is a venture partner at Arch Venture Partners and was a former director for Medical and Biodefense -Meremente policy in the National Security Council.
“She is someone who thinks great integrity, and she is very smart,” said Borio.
Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, expressed support for the nomination of Monarez, although in a more monitored way. Inglesby served for a while as a senior adviser to the COVID-19 response of the Biden Witte Huis and has known Monarez for years. He described her as a very capable official with many senior level positions on her resume.
“If Susan gets the latitude to be guided on public health issues at CDC, given the possibility to decide on vaccine science and to make other important policy decisions without external intrusion, given the budget to ensure that the range of important public health programs is robust and strong, IPADEMENTERS, IPACTIDE, is a strong and disaster work to be a strong and disaster -workers, an icing -employees, a strong and disaster work, a strong and disaster -workers, a strong and disaster -workers, a strong and disaster -work workers. who has the science and functioning of the daily health of the public.
Monarez has mainly worked behind the scenes, a fact that will probably work in her favor if it is time for her confirmation process of the Senate. Unlike Weldon and some figures that were rumors for him, there seems to be no long record of controversial comments that can be used against her. For example, she does not seem to have personal accounts on the social media platforms X (formerly Twitter) or Bluesky.
Borio said that she does not know the views of Monarez about vaccinations, although Borio, given the work of Monarez on the preparedness of Barda and elsewhere in the federal government, that she would probably be supporting their development and use.
“We never discussed her views on vaccines, but it would be completely surprised to me if she didn’t support,” said Borio. “Vaccins are some of the most important interventions on public health, as you know, in modern times.”
Some anti-vaccine accounts on X and Facebook seemed to object to the nomination of Monarez and saw her as a pro-vaccination. Health Freedom Louisiana, a group that opposes vaccine mandates for school entry, called the nomination “A betrayal.”
Monarez would be the first CDC director They have no medical degree since 1953. She has a BS and Ph.D. In microbiology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and did postdoctoral work in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Monarez worked at the Department of Homeland Security and at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration and continued in the health roles during Trump’s first term. During the Biden administration she was appointed deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or Arpa-H, in 2023.
Trump tapped her at the start of his tenure this year to act the head of the CDC. When she arrived, she reported the staff that she would stay with the agency as director of deputy director as soon as Weldon was confirmed, which led to the departure of the sitting in that job, Nirav Shah.
Monarez was not to the various names that were driven as possible nominees, people like surgeon Joseph Ladapo in Florida, whose views on vaccination policy are closely tailored to those of Kennedy and the former Republican representative of Texas, Michael Burgess.