Tough find
This is the situation awaiting a new director. And according to reports, the individual chosen for the role will need to walk an extremely fine line: having the necessary credentials to pass muster with the Senate, managing Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views without overtly taking anti-vaccine actions, and appeasing Kennedy’s politically influential Make America Healthy Again base.
So far, Kennedy seems to be struggling with the search. According to reporting from The Washington Post, sources close to the matter said the goal was to name a nominee before the deadline Wednesday, but Kennedy was unable to do so. Sources said around half a dozen people were being seriously considered for the role.
On Wednesday, Bhattacharya held an all-hands meeting with CDC staff in which he was expected to reveal a nominee. He did not, though he suggested a nominee could be named as early as Thursday. “But if not, I don’t think much will change,” he added, according to a leaked recording obtained by KFF News.
In response to questions from Ars Technica, the Department of Health and Human Services, which encompasses the CDC, declined to answer questions about why there was a delay in naming a nominee or if there is an expected timeline for the nomination.
A spokesperson said only that Kennedy and Chris Klomp, the operational leader of HHS and a close advisor to Kennedy, “are working with the White House on the CDC director search by evaluating candidates that can further the Trump administration’s objective of restoring the CDC to its original mission of fighting infectious disease.”
The spokesperson went on to say that Bhattacharya would stay on at the CDC without being the acting director but would perform the “delegable duties” of the position.
In the all-hands meeting on Wednesday, Bhattacharya joked about staying in the position as “either acting director or acting in the capacity of the director, whatever the heck that means.”
“It’s like an Office episode, you know?” he said.