• Posted February 20, 2026

Bhattacharya to Do Double Duty at Helms of CDC and NIH

An outspoken critic of the nation’s top public health agency has been tapped to lead it for the foreseeable future.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will serve temporarily as acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in addition to filling his role as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The former Stanford University physician and economist steps in at the CDC for Jim O’Neill, who is moving on to lead the National Science Foundation, according to The Washington Post.

Bhattacharya first gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a co-author of the "Great Barrington Declaration." It argued that government-ordered lockdowns and school closures did more harm than good, suggesting instead that officials should focus only on protecting the most vulnerable seniors.

His stance often put him at odds with public health experts attempting to corral a highly contagious virus that moved quickly and affected millions in the United States and abroad.

Reflecting in 2024 on the agency's past performance, Bhattacharya once wrote on X: “The CDC peddled pseudo-science in the middle of a pandemic.” He pointed specifically to the CDC’s claims regarding the effectiveness of widespread masking.

As the acting head of the CDC, Bhattacharya will oversee the committee that issues vaccine recommendations. This is a sensitive role at a time when public trust in the health agency has fallen steadily — dropping from nearly 60% when President Donald Trump took office in early 2025 to 47% today, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

While Bhattacharya has been a staunch critic of vaccine mandates, he has been careful to separate that criticism from the value of the vaccines themselves.

“I think the best way to address the measles epidemic in this country is by vaccinating your children for measles,” he testified at a U.S. Senate hearing earlier this month.

The White House is still searching for a full-time, permanent CDC director, a position that requires approval from the U.S. Senate.

For now, Bhattacharya’s primary goal appears to be stabilizing an agency that has been shaken by internal disagreements over policy, according to The Post.

He has frequently argued that past policies during a global pandemic, like social distancing and school closures, lacked enough evidence to justify their "unintended consequences" on the public.

More information

Learn more about the priorities of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

SOURCE: The Washington Post, Feb. 18, 2026