RFK Jr.’s deputy to serve as acting leader of CDC

WASHINGTON, DC – Jim O’Neill (pictured), a former investor, critic of health regulations and currently U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s deputy, is taking control of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following ouster of the agency’s director.

O’Neill was picked by U.S. president Donald Trump to be the CDC’s interim director, supplanting Susan Monarez, a longtime government scientist.

Monarez had been the CDC director for less than a month. Her lawyers said she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”

O’Neill takes over 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.

Last week in a social media post, O’Neill said he looked forward to working with CDC staff and “announcing additions to the senior leadership in the weeks ahead.” He added that he would continue to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

CBC News reported that O’Neill was formerly an associate of billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel. He has no training in medicine or health care and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in humanities.

O’Neill has kept a markedly lower profile than Trump’s other top health officials, all of whom joined the administration as Washington outsiders. He’s also the only one with experience working at HHS, where he served for six years under U.S. 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 healthcare policy professional and I don’t think anybody can accuse him of being an RFK Jr. sock puppet,” said 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 told 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 ultra-processed foods.

He was also not a major critic of public health measures during the pandemic, unlike U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief Marty Makary and other several Trump officials.

However, O’Neill did use social media to criticize FDA efforts to stop the prescribing of unproven treatments for COVID-19, including the anti-parasite drug ivermectin.

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 many parts of the federal bureaucracy, saying it hinders advances in medicine, technology and other areas.

During Trump’s first term, O’Neill was vetted as a possible choice to lead the FDA, although his past statements about the agency raised alarms among pharmaceutical and medical technology executives.

In particular, O’Neill proposed doing away with FDA’s 60-year-old mandate of assuring new drugs are both safe and effective in treating disease. In a 2014 speech, O’Neill suggested drug effectiveness could be established after medicines hit the market.

Trump ultimately nominated Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA official and supporter of the agency’s regulatory approach, as commissioner.

After being nominated to the HHS post, O’Neill voiced his support for the federal government’s traditional system for overseeing vaccines – including the role of the CDC – while refusing to criticize Kennedy’s views on the topic.

“I support CDC’s recommendations for vaccines,” O’Neill told 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, 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 difficult nor discouraged people from taking vaccines,” O’Neill responded.

Within weeks, O’Neill could be asked 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 government immunization schedule for children.

Traditionally, the CDC director signs off on recommendations from the panel. But Monarez was removed 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 210 days heading the agency before he must step aside or be formally nominated to the post.