The Centers for Disease Control is facing one of its worst leadership crises in decades. After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired CDC Director Susan Monarez less than a month after her Senate confirmation, the fallout has been swift and severe. Monarez has refused to step down, arguing that her firing is illegitimate without a presidential order. Meanwhile, several top officials have quit in protest, citing what they describe as an environment where science is being sidelined.

Among those resigning were Dr. Daniel Jernigan, a longtime figure in infectious disease control, Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, and vaccine division head Demetre Daskalakis. Their departures have further destabilized the agency at a moment when Americans are looking for stability in public health policy. Daskalakis made his frustrations public on X, claiming he could not work in a system that, in his words, “treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality.”

This turmoil has drawn rare bipartisan outrage. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, and Bernie Sanders, the progressive independent from Vermont, both slammed the situation. Cassidy is demanding that Kennedy’s newly handpicked vaccine advisory panel delay its upcoming September meeting, warning that its recommendations lack credibility given the chaos at the top of the agency. He stressed that children’s health is on the line, saying any rushed policy decisions should be rejected as illegitimate.

Sanders, for his part, has called for a congressional investigation into Monarez’s firing, accusing the administration of replacing career scientists with loyalists who have “a history of spreading bogus conspiracy theories.” His comments highlight how even Democrats deeply opposed to Trump’s broader agenda are wary of RFK Jr.’s influence over health policy.

For the White House, the CDC fight represents a political challenge. President Trump has promoted his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, which dovetails with Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccine mandates. But the resignations and bipartisan criticism risk undermining public confidence just as Trump is trying to project an image of restored order and accountability.

The deeper question is whether the CDC, long criticized for its pandemic failures, can regain credibility at all. Critics argue that years of bureaucratic drift, politicization, and public distrust have left the agency hollowed out. Now, with multiple senior officials gone and dueling visions for its future, the agency looks adrift.

For conservatives, the turmoil validates long-standing concerns that the CDC has become more about politics than science. For progressives, it’s a warning sign that Kennedy’s influence could reshape public health in ways they see as dangerous. Either way, the bipartisan outrage shows that Washington is bracing for a bruising fight over the future of America’s top health agency—one that could shape not just vaccine guidance, but public trust itself.