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Susan Collins ‘extremely alarmed’ at Trump administration firing of CDC director
Maine's senior senator reacted Thursday to the firing of U.S. CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was let go by the administration this week following a reported clash with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.
Maine's senior senator reacted Thursday to the firing of U.S. CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was let go by the administration this week fol
Please join us in sending a letter to congress via Resistbot, to maintain masking in healthcare settings.
Please text PRIKQU to 50409 and the Resistbot will take care of getting the letter sent on your behalf.
Demand Masks in Healthcare
As my representatives in Congress, I am asking you to intervene with the CDC and with all levels of the Administration in regards to Covid-19.
We MUST have N95 masks or equivalent worn by all staff with patient contact in healthcare facilities-hospitals, outpatient centers, and nursing homes.
The HICPAC advisory committee to the CDC is proposing to weaken infection control measures. They are incorrectly saying that surgical masks are as protective as N95s, cherry-picked their data, and ignored abundant evidence to the contrary.
Further, some hospitals (like MGH) are not honoring requests from patients that staff wear a mask. This would appear a violation of ADA standards for accommodation and is unconscionable, resulting in patients delaying necessary care because they risk a deadly hospital-acquired Covid infection.
Dr. Cohen like the rest of the Administration is pretending that Covid is over and is focusing on the "urgency of normal." They are pushing people to go back to unmasked offices with inadequate ventilation, when teleworking has worked very well.
On July 20, 900 experts sent a letter to Dr. Cohen asking her and HICPAC to make their processes transparent, to seek the input of a variety of stakeholders, and to listen to experts in ventilation and aerosols. See https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10482911231195898. This has fallen on deaf ears.
On 8/25, in "The Check-in with Dr. Cohen," a Q&A session, Dr. Cohen tells people to wash their hands and stresses "it's important to use all the tools we have in our toolbox to protect ourselves." Not once did she mention masks or ventilation, both critically important since we know that Covid is primarily transmitted by aerosols.
The CDC states its mission is Saving Lives, Protecting People.TM They have abdicated in meeting their responsibility.
So on Friday the Director of the CDC Rochelle Walensky said,
“The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least 4 comorbidities. So really these are people who were unwell to begin with, and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron.”
There have been plenty of people who have explained why it is dangerous for the head of the nation’s top medical authority to spout eugenics rhetoric. If you want to read more on the topic, look up Matthew Cortland or Imani Barbarin on Twitter for more info.
What I want to talk about is the way Walensky used “science-speak” in this interview to obfuscate the truth.
Example 1: “At least four comorbidities”
People not in healthcare will think: “Wow, four comorbidities. It must only be the really sickly that are dying, huh?” But here’s the thing: if you have one health condition, you probably have multiple. For example, if you have diabetes, you probably have high blood pressure and heart issues too. Given how common it is for health issues to go undiagnosed (especially in America’s healthcare hell), many people are in this 4+ category and don’t realize it.
Example 2: “Unwell to begin with”
This is technically true: people with health issues are generally “unwell.” But unwell is a humongous category, covering everybody from Hypertensive Harry to Leukemia Larry. Most of these “unwell” people were far from death (and even the ones that were close to dying don’t deserve to pass away on a ventilator.)
Put another way: If you set Ashley’s house on fire, you don’t get to say that her asthma killed her. Yes, her asthma may have caused her to suffocate a little quicker, but the fire is what killed her. If the fire hadn’t happened, she would have lived a long, happy life. A preventable pandemic is as unnatural a death as arson.
Example 3: “The vast majority of people are not contagious after 5 days”
This half-truth actually came a little earlier in the interview. The news anchor was asking Walensky about the CDC’s decision to shorten the quarantine period, and Walensky responded that it was fine since most people aren’t contagious after 5 days.
If someone says “vast majority” and avoids giving you an exact percentage, that is often a red flag. In this case, the “vast majority” means 70%. As in, nearly a third of people are contagious beyond 5 days. But Walensky says that testing after day five is an “optional,” “extra” step.
Apparently it is more important for people to go back to work than it is to curb the spread. And before you say anything about the shortage of health care workers: if these were solely intended as triage guidelines, then the CDC would have put them on the triage page of their website. These guidelines were meant for all workers, regardless of risk.
Tl;dr: The CDC Director should resign because she is damaging public trust in science during a time when we need it most.
Monarez’s lawyers said she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives.” The White House responded that she was “not aligned
Monarez’s lawyers said she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives.” The White House responded that she was “not aligned with the President’s agenda.”
Aug. 27, 2025, 2:42 PM MST / Updated Aug. 27, 2025, 7:09 PM MST
By Erika Edwards and Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leadership was in stunning disarray Wednesday evening after the Trump administration fired the agency’s director hours after she refused to resign under pressure.
The director, Susan Monarez, said she was resisting being ousted by the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for political reasons after about a month in office.
From vaccines to fluoride, here's what the newly confirmed CDC director Susan Monarez has said about some key health topics.
The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday along party lines, 51 to 47, to confirm Susan Monarez as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Monarez has been serving as the acting head of the CDC since January, and previously worked as the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. She was viewed as somewhat surprising pick for the CDC role because unlike most recent CDC directors, she holds a Ph.D. but is not a medical doctor.
At her confirmation hearing before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) committee on July 9, Monarez garnered praise from the Republican chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is a physician, for her commitment to rebuilding public trust in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats on the committee grilled her about the impact of cuts in federal funding for health programs and medical research, and expressed concern about the CDC's role under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Monarez was questioned by committee members about a range of health topics. Here are some of those highlights.
Monarez on vaccines
Monarez faced a number of questions about vaccine recommendations. Kennedy has been a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory linking routine childhood shots to autism, but during her hearing, Monarez refuted that view and stated that she has "not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism."
Ousted CDC Director details why she was fired by RFK Jr.
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prev
