<p>Dr. Susan Monarez was the first CDC Director to be confirmed by the Senate and served from July 31, 2025 – August 27, 2025. Because <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03179-1">she refused</a> to give approval to new vaccine recommendations without ever seeing them or their evidence and firing scientists without cause, she was fired. In my view, she’s a hero for standing up for science and speaking truth to power.</p><p>In her first live interview since leaving the CDC, we review her background. That includes growing up in rural Wisconsin and getting her college and PhD education at UW-Madison, the latter in microbiology and immunology. She then went on to 18 years of government service with an extensive portfolio of jobs and management at BARDA, the White House, ARPA-H, and others, before becoming Acting Director of the CDC in early 2025.</p><p>We discussed the horrific CDC shooting on August 8th, days after she started. Then we reviewed a conversation that we had on August 19th in which she laid out her exciting vision for the future of CDC, emphasizing the goal of prevention (BTW, CDC stands for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control </a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/"><em>and Prevention</em></a>) and asked me to help as an advisor. At the time, she was well aware, with growing tension, that her tenure at CDC might be limited. </p><p>I asked about her perspective for the jobs of 4,300 people at CDC who have been terminated, which account for more than 1/3rd of the workforce, no less the gutting of the budget.</p><p>Then we got into what she learned from this ordeal and her plans for the future, which includes a very ambitious initiative: 90/90/2035. As you’ll see from our conversation, Dr. Monarez is exceptionally resilient and an optimist. She’s got lots to do in the years ahead to carry out her mission of promoting human health!</p><p></p><p>Dr. Monarez just started a Substack <a target="_blank" href="https://susanmonarez.substack.com/?utm_source=mention&#38;utm_content=writes">The Road Best Traveled</a> so you can follow her there. It was a real privilege for me to do this interview with her. In deep admiration of her willingness to not only take on the job of CDC Director in tough circumstances, her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU6E_OBAF1o">professionalism during testimony at the Senate committee hearing</a>, her impressive yet unrealized vision for transforming the CDC, and refusing to cave to immense pressure from the HHS Secretary to move ahead with his agenda. </p><p></p><p>Thank you <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/140136152-julie">Julie</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/142532740-stephen-b-thomas-phd">Stephen B. Thomas, PhD</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/36537643-david-dansereau-mspt">David Dansereau, MSPT</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/136429357-dr-sara-wolfson">Dr. Sara Wolfson</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/68110001-vau-geha">Vau Geha</a>, and >500 others for tuning into my live video with <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/52892625-the-road-best-traveled">The Road Best Traveled</a>! </p><p>Thanks for being a Ground Truths subscriber! Please spread the word.</p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Ground Truths at <a href="https://erictopol.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_4">erictopol.substack.com/subscribe</a>