Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, during a tour of the Broad Institute on December 5, 2025.
Jonathan Wiggs | Boston Globe | Getty Images
U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will take over as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Trump administration official said on Wednesday.
The New York Times first reported the news on Wednesday.
Health and Human Services Deputy Security Jim O’Neill is currently acting CDC director, having taken over in August after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the former director less than a month into her tenure.
O’Neill will leave both his roles are part of a larger shakeup of health department leadership, and will be offered a different role in the administration not within HHS, the administration official told Reuters on Wednesday. His departure was first reported by Politico on Friday.
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