President Donald Trump will soon nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its acting chief, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, told agency employees at a Wednesday staff meeting.<\/p>\n
According to a recording obtained by KFF Health News, Bhattacharya at one point suggested to CDC staff that Trump could name a new leader for the agency as soon as Thursday. \u201cBut if not, I don\u2019t think much will change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Though his official position as acting director was set to expire Wednesday, Bhattacharya will continue to lead the agency until the top spot is filled. Meanwhile, news outlets including Axios<\/a> and The Washington Post<\/a> reported that the administration was postponing filling the permanent director job amid the challenges of gaining Senate confirmation and other political pressures.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya opened the meeting by acknowledging the struggles the beleaguered agency has gone through<\/a> over the past year. Workers faced multiple waves of job losses, and a gunman attacked the CDC\u2019s Atlanta campus in August, killing a police officer and causing significant property damage. \u201cI want to acknowledge very honestly that I know that it has been such a difficult year for the CDC and for every single one of you here,\u201d Bhattacharya said.<\/p>\n He said the agency has begun to fill its leadership gaps. During his first meeting with the agency\u2019s top leaders, he said, \u201cI noticed almost every single one of them is acting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve made progress in filling key roles across the agency,\u201d he said. \u201cLeadership stability is essential to delivering our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n The aim, he said, is to leave the agency in \u201ca solid, secure place\u201d so it can do its work \u201cwithout so much of the turmoil that we\u2019ve seen the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n Bhattacharya invited questions from the CDC staffers, who repeatedly asked about staffing losses, morale, and their job security, as well as Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n \u201cThe politics of WHO withdrawal are above my pay grade,\u201d Bhattacharya said. \u201cWhat I do know is that without the CDC, the world will be in much worse health.\u201d<\/p>\n Workforce Concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n One employee told Bhattacharya the agency had lost a \u201chuge amount\u201d of \u201cinternal capacity and expertise in the past year\u201d and it \u201ccontinues to be very challenging for staff to do their jobs,\u201d adding that \u201ccertain conditions are a bit demoralizing.\u201d<\/p>\n The CDC can \u201cfunction without leaders,\u201d another speaker said. \u201cWe function without directors. And this entire team will make CDC run without you if you\u2019re not here.\u201d<\/p>\n Schedule F, an effort to reclassify certain federal employees in policy-related roles and reduce their civil service protections, drew some of the strongest statements from the staff. While it\u2019s not fully implemented, the policy could make it easier for Trump to fire thousands of federal workers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s scaring the hell out of us right now is Schedule F,\u201d an employee said. \u201cWe are terrified that \u2018at will\u2019 means you\u2019re gone, you\u2019re not here, you\u2019re fired.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Schedule F fight\u2019s above my level,\u201d Bhattacharya replied. He said his focus is on making sure the \u201cwork is supported.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the agency should seek to \u201cdepoliticize what we do fundamentally\u201d so that \u201cevery American sees us as working for their benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I say \u2018depoliticize,\u2019 I don\u2019t mean you can\u2019t say the hard or talk about the hard things,\u201d he added. \u201cI mean that you\u2019re free to talk about the hard things without fear that you\u2019re gonna be retaliated against.\u201d<\/p>\n On hiring and operations, he pointed to ongoing efforts but acknowledged delays. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, is \u201cmoving at the speed of bureaucracy,\u201d he said, adding that he\u2019s trying his best. \u201cWe have to move past the last year, and I think we now have an opportunity really to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaccine Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n On vaccines, Bhattacharya said one of the first things he did in his role as acting CDC director was to record a video \u201cstrongly encouraging parents to vaccinate their kids from measles.\u201d<\/p>\n He said rebuilding trust requires engagement. That means working with communities without denigrating them, and respecting how \u201cthey think and their values,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya said he would like the NIH and CDC to coordinate more, particularly on HIV prevention. He described his approach as \u201can implementation science strategy so that we can use these two pieces of the HIV tool kit to actually end the HIV pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n The search for a permanent CDC director is being led by HHS officials on behalf of the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya said he\u2019s friends with Kennedy and called \u201cthe caricature of him that I\u2019ve seen in the press\u201d unfair. Kennedy \u201creally does have a deep desire to make America healthy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For now, Bhattacharya said, he expects to stay in place at the CDC, as \u201ceither acting director or acting in the capacity of the director, whatever the heck that means.\u201d<\/p>\n He joked about the ambiguity: \u201cIt\u2019s like an \u2018Office\u2019 episode, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n