March 19 (Reuters) – HHS chief counselor Chris Klomp said on Thursday he was encouraged by the slate of candidates under consideration to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has faced significant instability under President Donald Trump’s administration.
U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya was named acting director for CDC last month as part of a broader shakeup within the health department ahead of midterm elections.
The CDC has faced budget cuts, staff reductions, and controversies under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist.
“I’m excited about (the) number of people that I’ve had the privilege to get to meet (and) interview and I’m very optimistic that we will select… an excellent leader for that agency,” Klomp said at a conference held by Stat News.
Bhattacharya took over from Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, who had been serving as acting CDC director since August, following Trump’s decision to fire then-director Susan Monarez after she objected to Kennedy’s proposed vaccine policy changes.
Her dismissal triggered the resignations of four senior CDC officials, who cited anti-vaccine policies and misinformation pushed by Kennedy.
Under O’Neill’s tenure, the CDC eliminated long-standing broad recommendations for four childhood vaccines in January and last year signed off on an advisory panel’s recommendation against early use of a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine.
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked key parts of Kennedy’s effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including a move to reduce the number of shots routinely recommended for children, and revamp the CDC advisory committee on inoculations.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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