1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Jay Bhattacharya was appointed acting CDC director on February 18, 2026, while also running the NIH. He is the third person to lead the agency since August, when RFK Jr. dismissed the Senate-confirmed director Susan Monarez after she refused to approve vaccine policy changes that contradicted scientific evidence. Her firing prompted four senior CDC officials to resign immediately. Bhattacharya is a health economist, not an epidemiologist or public health expert. He co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, arguing that COVID should spread freely among healthy populations to achieve herd immunity faster. Public health leaders warned that this approach would endanger the most vulnerable Americans, and the evidence supported their concerns. A KFF poll published this month found that only 47 percent of Americans now trust the CDC for reliable vaccine information, down from 85 percent in early 2020. Putting its most prominent critic in charge will not improve that trust. The CDC sets the vaccine and disease guidance that Americans rely on to make decisions about their families’ health. It needs a permanent, Senate-confirmed director with a background in public health. I urge you to demand Senate hearings before any permanent nominee is confirmed, and to block any candidate who cannot demonstrate independence from political pressure on vaccine science. The last director was dismissed for following the evidence. Allowing rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and Presidential loyalty to control our health agencies is unacceptable, and I'll continue to write until evidence-backed science and medicine are no longer subject to debate.