Free Republic

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stands at a crossroads. After years of pandemic fallout, opioid deaths, and declining public trust, the agency needs bold, decisive leadership. What it doesn’t require is another physician at the helm. In recent years, the CDC has almost exclusively been led by physicians, clinicians whose primary training, instincts, and oath revolve around caring for individual patients. But medicine and public health, though deeply related, are fundamentally different. Medicine treats individuals. Public health protects populations. Leading the CDC is less about diagnosis and more about infrastructure, logistics, and prevention. It is a...

The Trump administration withdrew the nomination of former Florida Rep. David Weldon (R) to head the CDC earlier this month, with the former lawmaker saying the reason was the lack of sufficient support among Republicans to secure his confirmation. President Trump chose Susan Monarez, a longtime federal employee and current acting CDC director, as his new pick. Monarez has served as acting CDC director since Jan. 23, 2025. Prior to this, she served as deputy director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Before entering government work, she was a science and technology policy fellow with the American...

President Trump on Monday selected Dr. Susan Monarez, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the permanent role, replacing David Weldon, whose nomination was withdrawn because of senators' opposition. Monarez has worked in federal government since 2006. Until her appointment to the Trump administration on Jan. 23, she was deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. Previously she worked in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. National Security Council and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "Dr. Monarez brings decades of experience...