Last Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the CDC director, Susan Monarez, had been fired. However, her lawyers claim otherwise.

Mark Zaid, one of her lawyers, said in a statement that she remains director of the CDC, stating that as a presidential nominee, only the President himself can fire her.

“Receiving an email from an HR staffer simply saying ‘you’re fired’ is insufficient as a matter of law to constitute the termination of a federal employee,” said Zaid.

Considering the recent changes to the laws on appointing the CDC’s director, Monarez is the first CDC director to need approval from the Senate. By firing and replacing her, this would continue the Trump administration’s pushing of legal limits.

In response to this, three senior CDC employees left the administration. Dr. Daniel Jernigan (the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases), Dr. Debra Hourdy (the chief medical officer at the CDC) and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis (director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases) all resigned within days of this information releasing.

The main reason cited was the issue of vaccines. According to Jernigan, an employee at the CDC for over 30 years, “All of those past findings were being called into question and being reanalyzed in ways that we could not understand.”

Similarly, Daskalis’ resignation letter cited that the vaccine committee “ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.”

Zaid also said in his statement that Monarez “chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda” and “for that, she has been targeted.”