Experts warn NIH director now leading CDC will push ‘RFK Jr’s agenda’ | Trump administration

Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was named acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday, making him the fourth leader in a year of the embattled agency, an unprecedented move that further consolidates the power of a small group of men at the helm of US health agencies.

He has been an ineffective leader on health whose attention will be further fragmented, and a close ally of Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a long-time vaccine critic. Bhattacharya may approve further changes to the vaccination schedule, observers said.

Bhattacharya will continue in his current role as director of the NIH, where he has overseen dramatic reductions in research and staffing. The CDC also cut grants to states and carried out mass layoffs, even as Kennedy officials radically reshaped their policies on routine vaccinations.

Staff say the controversial health economist had little to do with the NIH’s day-to-day operations.

“He won’t actually run the CDC. Just like he won’t actually run the NIH,” said NIH program manager Jenna Norton, speaking in her personal capacity.

Jeremy Berg, former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, had a similar response. “Now, rather than largely ignoring the actual operations of one agency, it can largely ignore the actual operations of two agencies,” he said.

Bhattacharya, who made his name opposing measures to prevent Covid-19, sharply criticized officials who simultaneously fund research and advise on policy.

“Bureaucrats who fund the careers of scientists should play no role in shaping pandemic policy,” Bhattacharya wrote in a post on Twitter/X in December 2021, claiming that the “dual role” was a conflict of interest that silenced scientists.

“It is a profound conflict of interest that science funders like Fauci are also closely involved in health policy,” he said in a May 2022 article criticizing Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He also repeatedly targeted Francis Collins, a former NIH director.

Mallory Harris, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Maryland who has closely followed Bhattacharya’s public statements, noted that “ironically, since becoming NIH director, he has already been unusually involved in developing vaccine recommendations and is now further consolidating his own power by taking on these roles simultaneously.”

“It appears the only qualification for this position is to endorse RFK Jr.’s agenda. He has already shown himself to be very capable of doing so.”

HHS did not respond at press time to questions from the Guardian about how long Bhattacharya would serve as acting director and whether he would be able to lead two large agencies simultaneously.

NIH staff say Bhattacharya delegates most of his responsibilities to his principal deputy, Matthew Memoli, and devotes much of his time to media appearances, earning him the nickname “Podcast Jay.”

“My first reaction was, ‘I wonder if Jay is going to do twice as many podcasts now,'” Norton said. But his appointment as interim director could have lasting consequences, she added. Bhattacharya has kept a low profile as head of the NIH, which “allows the administration to advance its agenda while having a figurehead who appears legitimate, at least on paper,” Norton said. “Bhattacharya’s role for the administration is largely that of a propagandist.”

Congress passed legislation in 2023 to make the CDC director a Senate-confirmable position. But the only Senate-confirmed CDC director under Trump, Susan Monarez, was fired from the agency after four weeks last summer after Kennedy pressured her to “rubber stamp” new vaccine decisions, she said.

Most recently, Jim O’Neill served as acting CDC director and HHS deputy secretary before leaving the health agencies on Friday; he was named director of the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.

Bhattacharya is also acting director, meaning the position is temporary. He can serve as “acting director” until 210 days have passed since Monarez left his position.

“After that, he will no longer be able to use that title, but will be able to carry out the non-exclusive duties of his position by delegation,” said Anne Joseph O’Connell, a professor at Stanford Law School.

Bhattacharya was confirmed by the Senate in March 2025 to lead the NIH, meaning he is qualified to serve as the agency’s acting director, unlike a previous official hired by Kennedy.

Experts fear that Bhattacharya, who has closely aligned himself with Kennedy’s agenda, will propose new restrictions on vaccination, for example.

“They needed someone confirmed by the Senate who wouldn’t interfere,” said Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

Berg said, “Under normal circumstances, one would have thought that being director of the NIH was more than a full-time job, and then being acting director of the CDC would be another full-time job. » But he also had no confidence in Bhattacharya’s ability to manage.

“I think he has secured the position of being the worst NIH director in history. The agency has lost staff and is barely functioning,” Berg said.

Although the White House eventually implemented a plan co-proposed by Bhattacharya, known as “herd immunity,” in response to the pandemic, Bhattacharya remains focused on the perceived failures of the Covid response from years ago.

“He is absolutely obsessed with Covid and the response to the pandemic,” Berg said. He expects Bhattacharya to continue “questioning the CDC’s role in the Covid response” during his term. He also regularly criticized former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, saying she “embodied politicized science.”

When Bhattacharya was first appointed, Berg thought he seemed sincere in his desire to lead this huge agency, which is a world-leading research organization. Berg emailed Bhattacharya what he hoped would be helpful tips for keeping the grants on track. But he was shocked when the economist responded to an email calling previous subsidies “an ideological mess,” according to emails shared by Berg.

“I went from thinking, ‘I have to help this poor guy because he has so much to do,’ to, ‘I don’t think he’s interested in knowing anything,'” Berg said.