Washington (AP) – Jim O’Neill, a former investor, critic for health regulations and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., takes control of the centers for the control and prevention of diseases after a turbulent week in which the director of the agency was forced.
O’Neill was selected by President Donald Trump as interim director of the CDC, the Susan Monarez, a long -time government scientist.
Monarez has been CDC director for less than a month. Her lawyers said she had refused to “stamp unscientific, ruthless guidelines and fire experts from rubber”.
O’Neill takes over an agency, which was shaken by Kennedy von Ocrupings, resignations and efforts, to meet the nation’s vaccine guidelines for his many years of suspicion of the security and effectiveness of long -term shots.
O’Neill said on Friday afternoon in a social media post that he was looking forward to working with CDC employees and “announcing additions to the senior leadership in the coming weeks”. He added that he would continue to serve as HHS deputy.
O’Neill, a former employee of the billionaire -tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, previously helped at one of Thiel’s investment funds and later led some of his other projects. This included a non -profit organization that worked for the development of artificial islands that would float outside the US territory and made it possible for them to experiment with new forms of government.
He has no training in medicine or healthcare and has Bachelor and Master degrees in the humanities.
An insider in Washington in a team from outsiders
O’Neill kept a significantly lower profile than Trump’s other top health officers, all of whom have joined Washington as an outsider. He is also the only one with experience in HHS, where he worked for six years under President George W. Bush.
Those who know him say that he is probably commissioned to serene the situation at CDC – although it is unclear what he will have, if at all.
“Jim O’Neill is a specialist in health policy, and I don’t think someone can accuse him of being an RFK Jr. Socken doll,” said Peter Pitts, a former FDA officer under Bush. “The question arises whether the role of the CDC director becomes a strict paper position in which the person only does what they have told of the secretary.”
O’Neill is not closely associated with Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy” movement and its efforts against food dyes, fluoride and ultra -proofed food.
In contrast to Marty Makary and other Trump officials, head of the nutritional and drug authority, he was also not a main critic for public health measures during pandemic, in contrast to Marty Makary and other Trump officials. Although O’Neill used social media to criticize the FDA efforts to stop the prescription of unproven treatments for Covid-19, including the anti-parasite medicine Ivermectin.
O’Neill has pushed to less regulation
O’Neill has long -term relationships with the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, including Thiel, one of the leading supporters of Trump from Silicon Valley. Like Thiel, O’Neill has expressed contempt for many parts of the German bureaucracy and claims that this hinders progress in medicine, technology and other areas.
During Trump’s first term, O’Neill was checked as a possible decision to head the FDA, although his previous statements about the agency had triggered alarms in the executives of pharmaceutical and medical technology.
In particular, O’Neill suggested that the 60-year-old mandate to remove the FDA to insure new medication safely and effectively in the treatment of diseases. In a speech from 2014, O’Neill suggested that the effectiveness of the medicines could be set up on the market after the occurrence of medication.
Trump finally nominated Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA official and supporter of the regulatory approach of the agency, as a commissioner.
Looking to break with Kennedy with vaccines
After O’Neill had been nominated in the HHS post, he expressed his support for the established system of the federal government for monitoring vaccines – including the role of CDC – and refused to criticize Kennedy’s views on this topic.
“I support the recommendations of CDC for vaccines,” O’Neill told Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy at a hearing in June. “I think that’s a central role that CDC has. It is required by law.”
In follow-up questions, the Democrat Ron Wyden O’Neill urged to say about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines to prevent measles and other diseases.
“Secretary Kennedy did not make it difficult and prevented people from taking vaccines,” replied O’Neill.
Vaccinations with high operations in front of you
Within a few weeks, O’Neill could be asked to sign new recommendations from a CDC panel that Kennedy redesigned with vaccine skeptics. The group should meet next month to check the vaccinations for measles, hepatitis and other diseases that have long been set on the government’s immunization plan.
Traditionally, the CDC director reports on recommendations from the committee. According to Dr. Richard better, a former CDC acting director who spoke to her, refused to automatically sign the committee recommendations after Monarez automatically signed the recommendations of the committee.
As a reigning civil servant, the Federal Act O’Neill limits to no more than 210 days before he has to step aside or officially be nominated in the post office.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, who worked twice as an acting CDC director, says that the powers of the chiefs of the acting agency essentially have no limits that go beyond the time.
“I was told:” You are the director. Do what you have to do, “said Schuchat.
Dueling health roles
Both roles from O’Neill at HHS and CDC are demanding, full -time jobs that would be extremely complex for a person who was done at the same time, said Schuchat.
“But if the goal is to make a prerequisite decision about vaccines for an incumbent CDC director, it is a different story,” said Schuchat.
O’Neill will not facilitate that there had been an exodus of four veterans -CDC -Center this week and the agency with few managers who have a background to medical, science or public health crisis management added.
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AP medical writers Mike Stobbe contributed to this story from New York
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