Last week, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Jay Bhattacharya, PhD, was named acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in addition to his NIH role. This is the fourth person to lead the agency in just eight months.
The CDC has had a number of acting directors in the past year and only one permanent director—Susan Monarez, who was fired last August one month after her Senate confirmation. Prior to Monarez’s appointment, the nomination of former Florida Representative David Weldon, MD, was withdrawn by the Trump Administration, leaving the CDC with no acting director and widespread confusion as to who was in charge. Jim O’Neill was then named acting director in August 2025 but was removed by the administration earlier this month.
This most recent appointment has sparked criticism within the scientific community, raising concerns that the two agencies are too different in scope—not to mention geographic distance—to be effectively led by the same person. Bhattacharya was an outspoken critic of the CDC’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, though in a recent email, he shared his goal of ensuring the public recognizes the hard work of CDC staff.
Bhattacharya’s workload and responsibilities at NIH are substantial. Leadership at 16 of the organization’s institutes and centers (ICs) remains unresolved as no new directors have been named. Bhattacharya’s appointment might serve only to weaken both NIH and the CDC, rather than help bring the latter out of its leadership slump.
