White House fires the head of top US health agency

The Trump administration confirmed Wednesday it had fired the head of the top US public health agency after she refused to step down during a standoff with vaccine sceptic Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

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The escalating dispute over Mr Kennedy’s sweeping overhaul of US vaccine policy also led to five other senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcing their resignations, according to a union representing some of the agency's workers.

Susan Monarez, a health scientist and longtime civil servant, had been the CDC's head for less than a month when Mr Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on X that she “is no longer director.”

But Ms Monarez’s lawyers said she would not step down because she had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House regarding her dismissal. The White House later confirmed that Ms Monarez had been fired.