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Bhattacharya’s growing power in Trump’s HHS worries health experts

Public health experts and former federal staffers are uneasy over National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya’s rising influence over U.S. health policy as he temporarily takes on the added role of leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Trump administration announced the leadership shake-up this week, with former interim CDC Director Jim O’Neill being moved out of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

“Candidly, this is someone who very clearly has an ax to grind with science and the scientific community in general,” Kayla Hancock, director of Protect our Care’s Public Health Watch project, said of Bhattacharya.

“We’ve seen with his record already at NIH and his history of Covid denialism before he even took this office that this is just not the kind of person that we need at the helm of our key public health and medical research institutions.” 

Bhattacharya, confirmed as NIH director in March of last year, was a Stanford University professor of medicine before joining the Trump administration. He was also one of the lead authors of “Great Barrington Declaration,” a 2020 open letter calling for COVID-19 lockdowns to be rolled back. 

In an email to CDC staff on Friday, Bhattacharya laid out what he said was a plan to restore trust in public health. During the pandemic, he wrote, it was “undeniable that some of the Federal government’s decisions, communications, and processes contributed to confusion, frustration, and a loss of that trust.”

“I also recognize the unique challenges faced by each of you over the past year due to abrupt changes in leadership, the tragic act of violence last summer, and overall uncertainty felt by all of you,” wrote Bhattacharya, referring to the fatal shooting at the CDC’s headquarters last year. “One of my goals is to ensure that you all get the recognition you deserve for your efforts.”

He listed three principles the agency would follow under his rule: updating guidance “transparently” as new data emerges, ensuring every investigation it conducts reflects the “responsibility to the communities we serve” and strengthening internal review processes to enhance “accountability and openness.”

The position of CDC director has been haphazardly filled over the past year. President Trump’s first pick, former Florida Rep. David Weldon (R), failed to gain support in the Senate, leading to longtime federal scientist Susan Monarez, the interim director, receiving the nomination to fill the role permanently.

Monarez was ultimately confirmed by the Senate along party lines, but only weeks later the administration pushed her out, with her claiming it was due to her refusal to give blanket approval of recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had restaffed with ideological allies. 

O’Neill, a deputy HHS secretary, was then made the interim director, making Bhattacharya the third acting CDC director in seven months. 

Former CDC physician Elizabeth Soda, who resigned late last year, said the American public is suffering because of the lack of stable leadership within the agency.

She noted how Congress had largely maintained funding for the agency, rejecting calls by the administration to deeply cut appropriations, indicating the legislative branch recognizes the importance of a strong CDC. 

“How can you even do the work that they’re being given the money to do, right? That’s a big challenge, and without having clear leadership, who can really devote the time and energy and expertise to face these challenges head on?” Soda said. 

Former federal staffers and public health voices who spoke with The Hill said the NIH and CDC agencies are too large and distinct from one another to have one individual leading both at the same time. 

“I don’t think Jay Bhattacharya can be trusted to lead either. But I think the size of both of these organizations and the missions are different, and I think it takes a specific type of person, a single person, to do each of these jobs,” said James Alwine, coordinating committee member of the nonprofit volunteer network Defend Public Health and professor emeritus of cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  

The NIH’s primary objective is to support U.S. research infrastructure, while the CDC is largely tasked with surveilling and addressing disease threats. 

Alwine began his career at the NIH. He opined that Bhattacharya’s motivations to lead these agencies did not align with their missions of promoting and protecting public health. 

“I think some of the things he’s doing certainly look to me like he’s getting back at those who came down on him because they criticized him so much about the Great Barrington Resolution,” Alwine said. 

When reached for comment, HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said of Bhattacharya, “The Director has empowered the NIH leadership team to ensure the agency’s priorities continue moving forward until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a permanent CDC director.”  

“CDC Principal Deputy Director Ralph Abraham and other members of the CDC leadership team will work closely with Dr. Bhattacharya during this acting period to continue protecting and serving the American people,” Hilliard added. “The Director is solely focused on ensuring a seamless transition for both agencies while maintaining continuity of leadership and advancing their core public health missions.” 

Monarez, the only confirmed CDC director in Trump’s second term, was an outlier when it came to health nominees. She did not come from the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) antiestablishment world that many of Kennedy’s picks came from, having been a government scientist for decades. 

Her refusal to bend completely to the MAHA agenda seemingly played a significant part in her termination. 

With Bhattacharya’s temporary dual role, public health influence has become further consolidated among ardent Kennedy allies. Whether Trump and Kennedy can find a MAHA ally who can also win Senate confirmation as CDC director remains to be seen. 

Soda, the former CDC staffer, was hopeful that compromises could be made for the sake of stable leadership at the agency.

“The optimist in me can hope,” Soda said. “We have to come to some middle ground understanding with one another, where we may not fully agree completely. But wouldn’t it be great if we could try to start moving towards the middle.” 

“In some ways, MAHA’s beliefs, I think, are just so contrary to what CDC represents,” Soda added. “It would be difficult, I think, to find someone who’s a true sort of believer in those principles to also then come and successfully lead the agency that is, you know, the agency that is driven by scientific evidence and data.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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