ATLANTA — Human and Health Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emailed CDC employees a letter on Friday after the exit of CDC Director Susan Monarez, and several top officials.
Channel 2 Action News obtained a copy of the letter sent via email in which Kennedy wrote that he wanted the employee to “hear directly” from him.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“I am committed to working with you to restore trust, transparency, and credibility to the CDC. Your daily efforts—often unseen—save lives. Reform does not diminish your work; it strengthens it. The American people are ready to believe in this agency again if we show them that integrity, accountability, and science guide every decision," Kennedy wrote in part.
The health secretary also added that he wants to rebuild the CDC into “a guardian of America’s health and security.”
The letter did not address the recent active shooter situation at the CDC campus in Atlanta nor the top officials who resigned.
The White House said Wednesday that it fired Monarez because she wasn’t “aligned with” President Donald Trump’s agenda and refused to resign. Monarez and Kennedy were in conflict over his new COVID-19 vaccine policy.
Monarez’s lawyers issued a statement Wednesday evening saying she had neither resigned nor been told she was fired. Then four senior managers resigned in protest of Monarez’s firing.
On Thursday, Channel 2’s Richard Elliot was at the CDC as three of them joined a group of workers who walked out.
“We’ve been talking about it for months, and in the past few days, this has escalated. We literally got on a Teams chat together. I’m their boss, so they submitted their letters to me, and I said, ‘I’m submitting mine.’ This is the deal, and we did it together,” Houry said.
In his letter on Friday, Kennedy confirmed that Jim O’Neill, a top deputy to the health secretary, as the acting CDC director.
RELATED STORIES:
- Top deputy to RFK Jr. named as acting director of CDC
- HHS Secretary RFK Jr. visits CDC days after shooting targeting its campus
- With ousting of CDC director, what happens next?
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
