Trump administration delays nominating new CDC director

Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her on Mastodon and Bluesky. You can reach Helen on Signal at hbranswell.01.

There is no end in sight for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s leadership limbo, with the Trump administration confirming on Wednesday it would not be nominating a new director by a procedural deadline.

To maintain someone in the role of acting CDC director, the administration had until Wednesday to advance a nominee for the position, which has been held by a series of interim figures for all but one month since the start of Trump’s second term. Susan Monarez was confirmed to the job last July, but was fired in late August after pushing back against health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccination policy.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya would continue in the part-time leadership role at the agency, but would be unable to perform some of the tasks of director or acting director going forward. Those functions, called non-delegable in the legislation, will have to be done by Kennedy.