Washington D.C. – The New York Times reports noted COVID death denier Jay Bhattacharya “will take on the additional role of acting director” of the Trump-RFK Jr. CDC while continuing to run NIH, poorly. Protect Our Care raised alarm that Bhattacharya is clearly not up to the task of even temporarily overseeing the CDC’s critical mission after leading the NIH into total disarray over the last year.
In December, The Atlantic pulled back the curtain on Bhattacharya’s incompetence and apathy as head of NIH: “[I]nside the agency, officials describe Bhattacharya as a largely ineffectual figurehead, often absent from leadership meetings, unresponsive to colleagues, and fixated more on cultivating his media image than on engaging with the turmoil at his own agency.”
“Jay Bhattacharya has overseen the most chaotic and rudderless era in NIH history, and for RFK Jr. to give him even more responsibility at the CDC is malpractice against the public health,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care. “Bhattacharya has failed to fill critical vacancies following a mass exodus of career staff and experts, which makes sense given his staff’s reported inability to contact him when he’s needed most. When Bhattacharya does make a rare appearance, it’s to demand more harmful cuts to research to score political points with Trump while leaving scientific trials and life-saving research in shambles. This is the last person who should be overseeing the CDC at a time when preventable diseases like measles are roaring back under RFK Jr.’s deadly anti-vax agenda.”
‘Turmoil’ Reigns at Bhattacharya’s NIH:
UNACCEPTABLE VACANCIES: Following indiscriminate mass federal health worker layoffs early last year, as of December, Bhattacharya’s NIH was still racing to fill almost half of its most important roles, with 13 vacant directorships out of 27 institutes and centers. Now, NIH review panels are due to lose all members by the end of 2026.
GRANTS CANCELLED, SCIENCE HOBBLED: Bhattacharya’s NIH cancelled dozens of grants focused on vaccine hesitancy and acceptance because the research no longer aligned with the agency’s priorities. A New York Times analysis of NIH awards found that in just the first six months of Trump and RFK Jr’s tenure, the agency terminated 1,389 medical research grants and delayed funding for more than 1,000 additional projects, disbursing about $1.6 billion less than the prior year over a comparable period. In the end, roughly over 2,000 NIH grants were cancelled or frozen in 2025, touching every area of science and medicine, with only about half later reinstated, often after legal or political pressure. A former NIH scientist is now suing the Trump administration for illegal firing over research cuts. In December, Bhattacharya led a new effort to claw back critical health research grants based on nothing but racism.
CLINICAL TRIALS HALTED, LIVES ON THE LINE. On Bhattacharya’s watch, dozens of NIH‑funded clinical trials — 383 out of 11,008 total — were interrupted by funding cuts in 2025. Those disrupted trials span cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and reproductive health, and together involve at least 74,311 patients already enrolled in “active, not recruiting” studies who signed up on the expectation that their care and follow‑up would be completed. Researchers warn that shutting off support mid‑stream wastes years of prior investment and risks discouraging patients from volunteering for future studies.
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