Overview
- Bhattacharya confirmed he will lead the CDC on an acting basis while continuing to run the NIH until a Senate-confirmed director is in place.
- He succeeds Jim O’Neill, who left HHS last week and is expected to be nominated to lead the National Science Foundation, according to administration officials.
- The move extends a months-long shake-up across federal health agencies that began after the ouster of Senate-confirmed CDC director Susan Monarez and subsequent senior staff resignations.
- Under the federal vacancies law, the acting tenure faces a 210-day limit tied to Monarez’s August removal, which can be paused only once a nominee is formally sent to the Senate.
- A prominent critic of pandemic-era restrictions, Bhattacharya recently told senators that measles vaccination is the best response to current outbreaks and that he has seen no evidence any single vaccine causes autism.