Trump’s new CDC chief: A Washington health insider with a libertarian streak

By MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump has picked Jim O Neill a former investor and critic of robustness regulations serving under Healthcare Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to take control of the Centers for Ailment Control and Prevention following a tumultuous week in which the agency s director was forced out O Neill Kennedy s deputy at the Department of Fitness and Human Services will supplant Susan Monarez a longtime leadership scientist who had been the CDC director for less than a month Monarez s lawyers explained she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific reckless directives and fire dedicated wellbeing experts O Neill takes over as acting director of an agency that has been rocked by firings resignations and efforts by Kennedy to reshape the nation s vaccine policies to match his long-standing suspicions about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots An HHS spokesperson stated Friday that O Neill would continue to serve as deputy of the department but did not provide details on his new role A former associate of billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel O Neill previously helped run one of Thiel s funding funds and later managed several of his other projects Those included a nonprofit working to develop manmade islands that would float outside U S territory allowing them to experiment with new forms of authorities He has no training in medicine or wellness care and holds bachelor s and master s degrees in humanities A Washington insider on a squad of outsiders O Neill has kept a markedly lower profile than Trump s other top wellness agents who all joined the administration as Washington outsiders He s also the only one with experience working at HHS where he served for six years under President George W Bush Those who know him say he ll likely be tasked with trying to calm the situation at CDC though it s unclear what if any independence he ll have from Kennedy Jim O Neill is a wellness care strategy professional and I don t think anybody can accuse him of being an RFK Jr sock puppet stated Peter Pitts a former FDA official under Bush The question becomes whether the role of CDC director becomes a strictly paper tiger position where the person only does what they re reported to by the secretary O Neill is not closely associated with Kennedy s Make America Healthy Again movement and its efforts against food dyes fluoride and ultraprocessed foods He was also not a major critic of community healthcare measures during the pandemic unlike Food and Drug Administration chief Marty Makary and other Trump personnel Although O Neill did use social media to criticize FDA efforts to stop the prescribing of unproven treatments for COVID- including the anti-parasite drug ivermectin O Neill has pushed for less regulation O Neill has long-standing ties to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party including Thiel one of Trump s leading supporters from Silicon Valley Like Thiel O Neill has expressed disdain for countless parts of the federal bureaucracy saying it hinders advances in medicine device and other areas During Trump s first term O Neill was vetted as a practicable choice to lead the FDA although his past statements about the agency raised alarms among pharmaceutical and medicinal machinery executives In particular O Neill proposed doing away with FDA s -year-old mandate of assuring new drugs are both safe and effective in treating ailment In a speech O Neill suggested drug effectiveness could be established after they hit the domain Trump ultimately nominated Dr Scott Gottlieb a former FDA official and supporter of the agency s regulatory approach as commissioner Refusal to break with Kennedy on vaccines After being nominated to the HHS post O Neill voiced his help for the federal ruling body s traditional system for overseeing vaccines including the role of the CDC while refusing to criticize Kennedy s views on the topic I backing CDC s recommendations for vaccines O Neill advised Louisiana Republican Sen Bill Cassidy at a confirmation hearing in June I think that s a central role that CDC has It s mandated in law In follow-up questions ranking Democrat Ron Wyden pressed O Neill on statements by Kennedy downplaying the safety and effectiveness of vaccines to prevent measles and other diseases Secretary Kennedy has not made it intricate nor discouraged people from taking vaccines O Neill responded High-stakes vaccine decisions ahead Within weeks O Neill could be petitioned to sign off on new recommendations from a CDC panel that Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics The group is scheduled to meet next month to review vaccinations for measles hepatitis and other conditions that have long been established on the cabinet schedule for children Traditionally the CDC director signs off on recommendations from the panel But Monarez was ousted after among other things she refused to automatically sign off the committee s recommendations according to Dr Richard Besser a former CDC acting director who spoke to her As an acting official federal law limits O Neill to no more than days heading the agency before he must step aside or be formally nominated to the post Dr Anne Schuchat who served twice as acting CDC director says there are essentially no limits on the powers of the acting agency chiefs beyond the time constraints I was described You re the director Do what you need to do Schuchat mentioned Related Articles US revokes visas of Palestinian authorities ahead of UN General Assembly Judges defense lawyers and grand jurors poke holes in cases from Trump s DC federal intervention Trump administration tells states to remove references to gender ideology from sex ed materials As Trump threatens more Guard troops in US cities here s what the law allows Chicago is in the Trump administration s sights for its next immigration crackdown Dueling wellbeing roles Both of O Neill s roles at HHS and CDC are demanding full-time jobs that would be extremely challenging for one person to do simultaneously Schuchat declared But if the goal is to have an acting CDC director fulfill a predetermined decision about vaccines it s a different story Schuchat explained It won t help O Neill that there was an exodus this week of four veteran CDC center directors leaving the agency with limited leaders who have a background in medicine science or inhabitants physical condition predicament management she added AP Curative Writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this story from New York The Associated Press Healthcare and Science Department receives backing from the Howard Hughes Diagnostic Institute s Department of Science Training and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content