The Donald Trump administration appointed Jay Bhattacharya, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director General who has clashed with health authorities as a lockdown skeptic during the COVID-19 pandemic, as acting Director General of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The move is seen as an attempt to reorganize the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has suffered growing pains from internal conflict and policy confusion ahead of the midterm elections.
On the 18th, The Washington Post (WP), citing multiple sources, reported that Bhattacharya will concurrently serve as acting Director General of the CDC while retaining his post as NIH Director General. Jim O'Neill, the Vice Minister of the Department of Health and Human Services who previously served as acting Director General, was offered the ambassadorship to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) but declined it and is expected to be nominated to head the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The personnel move is seen as part of a sweeping overhaul of HHS leadership by President Trump and Health and Human Services Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Susan Monarez, who took office as CDC Director General after Senate confirmation in July last year, clashed with Minister Kennedy over the direction of vaccine policy and was dismissed in less than a month. Inside and outside the CDC, there has been a constant drumbeat of concerns over low staff morale and policy inconsistency.
In this situation, Bhattacharya will serve as acting Director General until a permanent chief who has been confirmed by the Senate is appointed. Born in India, Bhattacharya holds doctorates in medicine and economics from Stanford University and drew nationwide attention during the pandemic by arguing that government restrictions such as mask mandates and school closures were excessive. In particular, in Oct. 2020 he co-authored the "Great Barrington Declaration," arguing to lift broad lockdowns and focus on protecting vulnerable groups such as older adults, sparking public debates with public health experts.
Even after the end of COVID-19, he continued to criticize the government response. In 2024, he raised the case against mask-wearing on social media (SNS), saying "the CDC injected pseudo-science during the pandemic," and in Jan. this year contributed an op-ed to the medical journal Nature Medicine arguing that measures such as social distancing and vaccine mandates were implemented without sufficient basis and caused side effects. Bhattacharya in particular argues that vaccine mandate policies undermined trust in voluntary vaccination, a point of convergence with Minister Kennedy, who is calling for scaling back vaccine policy.
With Bhattacharya taking office as acting Director General of the CDC, the most closely watched issue is also changes surrounding the vaccine recommendation system. The CDC sets practical standards for U.S. health policy through vaccination recommendations, infectious disease response guidelines, and public health alerts, and the medical community has voiced public opposition as Minister Kennedy recently announced a review of vaccine recommendations. According to a poll by the U.S. health nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), trust in CDC vaccine information plunged from 85% in early 2020 to 47% now.
However, unlike Minister Kennedy, Bhattacharya has expressed clear support for childhood immunizations. At a recent Senate hearing, he said, "The best way to respond to the measles outbreak in the United States is to vaccinate your children against measles," which is seen as reaffirming his existing stance that, rather than rejecting vaccines outright, raises issues with mandates and the transparency of the policy process.