The White House postponed naming a permanent CDC director as the Trump administration navigates competing political pressures ahead of midterm elections.
The White House delayed nominating a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leaving the nation's leading public health agency without confirmed leadership.
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The delay comes as the Trump administration continues to weigh political risks ahead of November's midterm elections, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The CDC is responsible for tracking disease outbreaks, guiding vaccination policy, and coordinating responses to public health threats ranging from seasonal flu to emerging pandemics, functions that take on added significance as the agency navigates a period of significant internal restructuring under the current administration.
Jay Bhattacharya, who heads the National Institutes of Health, has been serving as acting CDC director since Jim O’Neill took over for Dr. Susan Monarez who was
For Bhattacharya, his temporary appointment expired this week, and he will no longer hold the official acting director title, though he will continue overseeing the agency by performing the delegable duties of the CDC director, according to Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.1
The CDC has had a permanent leader for less than a month of Trump's second term.
Chris Klomp, a healthcare businessman installed as the
Nixon says Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Klomp are working with the White House to evaluate candidates who can advance the administration's objective of returning the CDC to what it describes as its original mission of fighting infectious disease.1
Candidates being seriously considered for the position include, former Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher, Mississippi health director Daniel Edney, and Johns Hopkins cardiologist Joseph Marine, according to administration officials and others familiar with the process who spoke on condition of anonymity.1
About half a dozen individuals are being actively evaluated, with administration officials having previously aimed to select a nominee before Bhattacharya's acting appointment expired.2
The delay reflects competing political pressures that have made the appointment unusually sensitive. White House officials faced a wave of controversies across health agencies, including abrupt shifts on
With midterm elections approaching, the administration is wary of further unsettling voters already uneasy about how Kennedy has disrupted the
Additionally, the Trump administration is dealing with turnover across several agencies including the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), which last month saw director Vinay Prasad
In a post on X,3 FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary wrote, “A year ago, Dr. Prasad came to the FDA to implement 4 major long-lasting reforms: 2-to-1 pivotal trial requirement, national priority reviews, a risk-stratified covid vaccine framework, & the new plausible mechanism framework for ultra rare diseases which we launched last week. Also, under his leadership, his center hit a record number of approvals in Dec. He got a tremendous amount accomplished within his one-year sabbatical from UCSF and will be returning back to his academic home later next month. We will name a successor before his departure.”
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