Trump Admin Names New Acting CDC Dir After Monarez Firing

Friday, August 29, 2025

The White House has tapped Jim O'Neill, a top deputy to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following the ouster of Susan Monarez, who lasted mere weeks in her position.

Posted by lamplighter at 12:19 AM | 3 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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... Why It Matters

The White House removed CDC Director Susan Monarez from her post for not being "aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again," according to White House spokesperson Kush Desai, but she's now saying the decision must come directly from Trump, who has not said anything publicly about her ouster.

The move has prompted severe backlash from health officials and lawmakers, including former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the agency from 2009 to 2017, and Dr. Mandy Cohen, who served during the Biden administration. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-29 12:21 AM | Reply

... not being "aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again," according to White House spokesperson Kush Desai, ...

That sentence makes no sense to me.

Can anyone explain it, please?

thx.

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-29 12:23 AM | Reply

O'Neill will be the first person in the 80+ year history to head the CDC who is not a doctor. He has one of those elitist masters degrees in humanities from the University of Chicago (Obama liked that school) with a background working in hedge funds. Aren't those things the right are always crying about?
He has no qualifications that should make one believe he's an appropriate pick for this role, not even if it is only an interim stint. He favors deregulation of the pharmaceutical industry and thinks patients should be free to take pharmaceuticals at their own risk. Wants to leave determining efficacy up to the free market. Putting it another way, he's an advocate for snake oil salesmen.

#3 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2025-08-30 01:11 AM | Reply