White House taps Jay Bhattacharya, CDC critic, to lead agency for now

The co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which rebuked CDC’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, will oversee the nation’s leading public health agency.

By Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, Lauren Weber, Carolyn Y. Johnson

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

RFK Jr ally Jay Bhattacharya was named acting director of the CDC and will be fourth leader in a year to head agency Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was named the acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday, making him the fourth leader in a year at the embattled agency in an unprecedented move that further consolidates power among a small group of men at the helm of US health agencies. He’s been an ineffectual health leader whose attention will be further fractured, and as a close ally to Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine critic. Bhattacharya may sign off on further changes to the vaccine schedule, observers said. Continue reading...

By Melody Schreiber

NIH's Bhattacharya will also run the CDC while Trump administration looks for a permanent director

The director of the National Institutes of Health is also taking over as acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an administration official

By Lauran Neergaard

NIH director reportedly being tapped as acting CDC director