Indian American physician-economist appointed acting head of Centres for Disease Control 

Physician-economist Jay Bhattacharya, currently leading the National Institutes of Health, has been appointed acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amid leadership instability under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr

New York: Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist, is taking over the leadership of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the acting director of the world’s premier medical research organisation.

Bhattacharya, who now heads the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will simultaneously hold the CDC position, he told NBC News, confirming several earlier news reports. He steps into the CDC, which, like the rest of the federal health establishment, has been enmeshed in controversies under Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and has been a revolving door for leaders.

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Susan Monarez was fired as the CDC director in August after less than a month on the job, after clashing with Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic. Deputy Health Secretary Jim O’Neill was appointed the temporary head of the CDC, and Bhattacharya now takes over from him.

Kolkata-born Bhattacharya, who holds both a medical degree and a PhD in economics, was a professor at Stanford University’s medical school in California when President Donald Trump tapped him to lead the NIH. He shot to national prominence during the Covid pandemic by questioning the prevalent orthodoxy of the government health establishment that imposed extended, broad lockdowns to fight the disease, and went head-to-head with Anthony Fauci, who was acclaimed as the architect of the official policy.

That caught the attention of Trump and Kennedy.

Atlanta-based CDC has a $9.7 billion budget for its mandate to deal with threats to public health worldwide and in the US. Through its 25 centres and institutes with a network of laboratories, it monitors and provides ways of controlling infectious diseases, food-borne pathogens, and environmental health problems, as well as non-infectious health issues like obesity and diabetes.

Occupational safety, health and injury prevention are also in its remit. The NIH, located in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, has 27 institutes and centres and a budget of $48 billion for research at its institutions and sponsoring studies at others through grants.

Another Indian American doctor, Vinay Prasad, also has a top job in the US government health establishment. He is the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which monitors the safety, purity, and effectiveness of biologics, including vaccines, and gene therapies.

Prasad, who took up the helm of the centre in May, quit the job on July 29 only to return on August 9 at the request of the FDA leadership.