The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will push forward with temporary leadership as administration officials continue to evaluate candidates for the job, according to media reports and a confirmation statement from a Department of Health and Human Services representative.
Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health, has been serving as acting director of the CDC for the past month, taking over from the prior acting director, Jim O’Neill, who departed the role in February. However, last August’s firing of the public health agency’s former director, Susan Monarez, Ph.D., triggered a countdown for the administration to nominate a new CDC director that reached its end on Wednesday.
While officials earlier this week said they expected to name a new nominee by Thursday, it’s now confirmed that the candidate search is still ongoing.
That means that Bhattacharya has lost the title of acting director but “will continue to oversee the CDC by performing the delegable duties of the CDC director,” HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Media Relations Andrew Nixon said in an emailed statement. Under law, other tasks that may not be delegated must be performed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., officials have previously confirmed.
In the meantime, Chris Klomp, the director of Medicare and a senior advisor to Kennedy, “are working with the White House on the CDC director search by evaluating candidates that can further the Trump administration’s objective of restoring the CDC to its original mission of fighting infectious disease,” Nixon said.
The Washington Post and others, citing anonymous insiders, reported Wednesday afternoon that around half a dozen candidates are under serious consideration. A major concern for the administration is finding someone who is aligned with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, but with midterm elections around the corner, would draw less scrutiny over politically difficult areas like vaccine policy, per the reports.
Also of concern is the state of the agency itself, which has faced substantial upheaval in the past year, between mass layoffs, reportedly hijacked decision-making on public health issues and a shooting.
Bhattacharya, in an all-hands meeting held Wednesday, said he intends to bring stability during his ongoing time in charge. He told reporters that the administration is working to fill vacant leadership roles, affirmed his support for the measles vaccine and said that a road entering the CDC’s main campus would be renamed in honor of the Atlanta police officer who was killed in last year’s shooting.
Any nominee for the director role is required to pass through a confirmation vote in the Senate. Monarez had been confirmed in a party-line vote held four months after her nomination, but ultimately held the director role for less than a month due to clashes with Kennedy. A prior choice for the role, former legislator Dave Weldon, M.D., was pulled ahead of his confirmation hearing due to pushback over his views on vaccine safety.
Any nominee is likely to face an even tougher road to confirmation. Key Republican legislators have been frustrated in recent months over the CDC’s instability as well as policy decisions by Kennedy and his allies that directly contradict promises the secretary gave during his own confirmation process. Their wavering support is already playing out in the confirmation of Casey Means, M.D., the nominee for surgeon general, which media reports say has stalled.