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Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired

‘I would never do that, as a scientist,‘ Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details.
By
  1. Max Kozlov

When Susan Monarez took the helm of the beleaguered US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in late July, she had her work cut out for her. Public trust in the agency had dropped considerably since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who oversees the CDC, had called the agency a “cesspool of corruption” that needed to be fundamentally rebuilt.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03179-1

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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