Controversial NIH Director Appointed Temporary Acting Director of CDC

The director of the NIH, Jay Bhattacharya, will temporarily take on the role of acting director of the CDC, according to reporting from CNN.

HHS deputy secretary Jim O’Neill had been the CDC’s acting director since last August. He left his role as “part of a broader restructuring,” and he had been controversial himself, helping to “amplify anti-vaccine messaging.” He also “cheered the United States departure from the World Health Organization, and was considered a poor communicator.”

Bhattacharya is best known for “co-authoring the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter published two months prior to Covid-19 vaccines being available that opposed certain Covid-19 mitigations.” It argued that most people should “resume a normal life” when COVID hit so “the world could gain herd immunity through infection with the virus.” In his tenure as head of the NIH, “hundreds of staffers – including top leaders – were cut from several federal agencies.” NIH scientists also published a declaration taking issue with “the politicization of research and destruction of scientific progress under the Trump administration.”

SHEA also published a statement, writing that effective leadership at the CDC is “vital to restoring and maintaining public confidence in a time marked by growing challenges to science and public health.” They urged the Trump administration to “act swiftly in appointing a director who can guide CDC through today’s urgent public health challenges.”