New Acting CDC Director Named

Yesterday it was announced Jayanta "Jay" Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, was named acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prior to this appointment, Bhattacharya served as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) director.¹ Bhattacharya replaces the former acting director of the CDC, Jim O’Neil.

Throughout his career, Bhattacharya has had a number of positions at Stanford University, as well as worked at the RAND corporation, and UCLA.¹

Back in 2020, Bhattacharya was a coauthor of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for the barring of pandemic-response lockdown policies and resumption of in-person professional and recreational activities for younger, low-risk persons. Although Bhattacharya is serving within a Health and Human Services department that has viewed vaccines with skepticism and worked to change vaccine policy in the US, at a recent Senate hearing he did say, “I have not seen a study that suggests any single vaccine causes autism.” He also said that he did not believe the measles vaccine causes autism. This is in direct opposition to the position of HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy’s past remarks around vaccines and autism.

Reference
1. Acting Director. CDC. February 18, 2026. Accessed February 19, 2026.
https://www.cdc.gov/about/leadership/director.html