The White House said late Wednesday it had fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Susan Monarez, after she refused to resign, saying her views were “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.” Monarez was confirmed by the Senate as CDC director less than a month ago. In a statement late Wednesday, her lawyers accused HHS and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of putting millions of lives at risk by firing career experts and seasoned scientists, while weaponizing public health. They wrote, “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”

Meanwhile, three senior CDC officials resigned in protest Wednesday: Dr. Debra Houry, deputy director for program and science and chief medical officer at CDC; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. In a resignation email, Dr. Houry wrote, “For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations. Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact.”