Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health, will reportedly be the next interim head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The former acting head of the agency, Jim O’Neill, was dismissed from the post last week as part of a larger restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. O’Neill will instead be tapped to head the National Science Foundation, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/18/bhattacharya-cdc-director-oneill-rfk-00786582">Politico</a>.
Bhattacharya&#8217;s ascension to the top of the CDC would mean the agency would fall under control of one of its longtime critics. Bhattacharya, a professor emeritus of health policy at Stanford, became widely recognized for his criticisms of the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the start of the pandemic, Bhattacharya and several associates openly broke with the approach of the top government health officials, including those at the CDC and former White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci. In October 2020, Bhattacharya joined with former Oxford University epidemiologist Dr. Sunetra Gupta and then-Harvard University professor Dr. Martin Kulldorff to write “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-health-experts-sign-declaration-calling-for-end-to-lockdown-warn-of-irreparable-damage">The Great Barrington Declaration</a>.”
The declaration broke openly with the much more conservative approach to the pandemic government medical experts espoused. The outside experts warned of “damaging physical and mental health impacts” brought on by following lockdown policies, instead urging an approach based on targeted protection for the vulnerable while healthy populations mingle and develop herd immunity.
Bhattacharya’s 2020 warnings have proved prescient in the intervening years. The lockdown policies of the pandemic have been thought to have caused numerous add-on effects, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/09/upshot/covid-lockdown-five-year-charts.html">spikes</a> in social isolation and alcohol consumption. 
Lockdown policies in schools retarded the growth and education of millions of students. Students in huge chunks of the country fell many months behind typical instruction and the efforts to catch them back up proved lacking, according to a 2023 <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/23/05/new-data-show-how-pandemic-affected-learning-across-whole-communities">report</a> from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The loss in learning continued despite a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/09/upshot/covid-lockdown-five-year-charts.html">surge</a> in spending on education.
CDC leadership has undergone a tumultuous time under the second Trump administration. The agency had a Senate-confirmed head last year, but Susan Monarez was removed from the role after less than a month on the job. O’Neill replaced Monarez, and he generated some controversy among health experts last month with the CDC rolled back its recommendations for a slate of vaccines.

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One Of The CDC’s Biggest Critics Is Now In Charge Of The Whole Thing