\n<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s \u201cMake America healthy again\u201d (Maha) agenda appears to be stalled as two of the government\u2019s most influential public health positions sit empty.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has yet to nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leaving an agency that has been plagued by turmoil for the past year without a leader. At the same time, the president\u2019s controversial pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, remains in limbo as her nomination stalls in the Senate.<\/p>\n
The CDC has now been without a Senate-confirmed director for more than 210 days, the maximum length of time an acting head can manage an agency under federal law.<\/p>\n
Jay Bhattacharya \u2013 who also runs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) \u2013 has served as interim chief of the CDC since February, and is expected to continue overseeing the agency through a delegation of authority by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, according to statements from both the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and White House.<\/p>\n
In a statement, HHS said that Kennedy and Chris Klomp, who serves as the director of Medicare and deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), are \u201cworking with the White House on the CDC director search by evaluating candidates that can further the Trump administration\u2019s objective of restoring the CDC to its original mission of fighting infectious disease\u201d.<\/p>\n
The agency\u2019s last Senate\u2011confirmed director, Susan Monarez, took over in July but was fired less than a month later after clashing with Kennedy over his vaccine agenda. Since then, the CDC has seen an exodus of senior public health officials, many of whom accused the health secretary of politicizing the agency and stripping leaders of their independence. The upheaval followed a shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, where a gunman \u2013 who blamed the Covid vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal \u2013 killed a police officer.<\/p>\n
Most recently, a federal judge ruled earlier this month that Kennedy\u2019s handpicked vaccine advisory panel was unlawfully appointed, and voided many of their recent decisions on vaccines, which included no longer recommending the latest version of the flu and Covid shots and the inclusion of the RSV shot for infants.<\/p>\n
Since only the CDC director can formally approve vaccine recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the absence of a permanent director effectively shifts that authority to Kennedy as health and human services secretary, according to Stanford law professor Anne Joseph O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the administration is struggling to find a nominee who both aligns with its agenda and can withstand Senate scrutiny, according to a person familiar with the search.<\/p>\n
As the White House searches for a permanent CDC director, its nominee for the nation\u2019s top doctor remains stuck in limbo. Casey Means testified more than a month ago, but the Senate health committee has yet to schedule a vote \u2013 leaving the post unfilled more than 320 days after Trump first nominated Means last May. Her initial hearing was postponed when she went into labor hours before she was set to appear.<\/p>\n
Means, 38, who is neither a board certified doctor nor holds an active medical license, graduated from the Stanford School of Medicine, but did not complete her head and neck surgical residency at Oregon Health and Science University. Her scientific experience is mainly focused around her work as an influencer and leader within the Maha space \u2013 the key pillar of the Trump administration\u2019s health policy.<\/p>\n
During her confirmation hearing, Means evaded questions about vaccine guidance, argued that many of the country\u2019s chronic health problems stem from lifestyle and environmental factors, brushed off concerns about her limited medical experience and faced criticism over potential conflicts of interest tied to her wellness product promotions on social media.<\/p>\n
As Means\u2019s appointment remains hampered, all eyes remain on the key Republican votes on the health committee that she will need to advance \u2013 namely Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and two GOP moderates, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.<\/p>\n
All three lawmakers expressed skepticism with various aspects of Means\u2019s public health perspective during her confirmation hearing. Shortly after Means testified, both Collins and Murkowski told Politico they were undecided about how they plan to vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese issues are important to me,\u201d Murkowski said at the time. \u201cLast year when the secretary was going through his confirmations, he made certain assurances about vaccines that in fairness I am not seeing have been kept.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassidy, who cast the pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy as Trump\u2019s health secretary last year, did so despite concerns about Kennedy\u2019s anti\u2011vaccine history. Kennedy assured him he would not interfere with ACIP\u2019s membership. He subsequently reversed course, reshaping the department and sidelining career public health experts.<\/p>\n
Both Cassidy and Collins are also up for re\u2011election this year, adding political pressure as Republicans warn Kennedy\u2019s shifts on vaccine policy could damage the party in the midterms. Cassidy \u2013 a former physician who chairs the health committee \u2013 is facing a primary challenge from Julia Letlow, a Louisiana congresswoman. Letlow is endorsed by Trump and backed by Maha Pac, which has pledged $1m to defeat Cassidy.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Letlow urged the two\u2011term incumbent to \u201cstop blocking\u201d Means\u2019s nomination in a post on X, writing that \u201cfor too long, Washington has protected a healthcare system that waits until people are sick, cashes in on chronic disease, and leaves families to pay the price. President Trump is trying to change that, and Casey Means is a major part of that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins, meanwhile, is expected to face a competitive race against whichever Democrat emerges from Maine\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n
Allies of the Maha movement have since tried to apply pressure on <\/strong> <\/strong>Republican holdouts to confirm Means. On Wednesday, during a weekly organizing call with the political advocacy group Maha Action, Republican senator Rand Paul, also a member of the health committee, told attendees to reach out to Cassidy, Collins and Murkowski. \u201cWe should have voted long ago,\u201d Paul said during the call. He added that the three senators he named \u201chave not been vocal in their support for her nomination\u201d.<\/p>\n On the call, which the Guardian joined, Paul added that if Means\u2019s nomination for surgeon general can\u2019t get the support it needs, then members who oppose her \u201cshould at least be on record as opposing her\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Trump administration\u2019s \u201cMake America healthy again\u201d (Maha) agenda appears to be stalled as two of the government\u2019s most influential public health positions sit empty. Donald Trump has yet to nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leaving an agency that has been plagued by turmoil for the past<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[794,233,2132,11834,4692,2002,3773,4289,13899,9857,1168,81,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-47487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-agenda","10":"tag-cdc","11":"tag-empty","12":"tag-general","13":"tag-maha","14":"tag-roles","15":"tag-sit","16":"tag-stalled","17":"tag-surgeon","18":"tag-top","19":"tag-trump","20":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}