The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to be operating without an acting director, multiple health officials confirm to CBS News, leaving the agency responsible for defending the U.S. against emerging pandemics and responding to health emergencies without a clear chain of command.
A leadership vacuum atop the CDC is unprecedented. Under previous administrations, including the first term of President Trump, officials made sure either to immediately appoint their pick for the position or decide during the transition on whom would assume the top post in an acting capacity.
Other federal health agencies are also operating without publicly named acting heads, including the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health.
Spokespeople for the CDC declined to comment, referring inquiries to the central press office for the Department of Health and Human Services. An HHS spokesperson did not comment.
In 2017, career civil servant Dr. Anne Schuchat assumed the acting director position on Jan. 20 immediately after Dr. Thomas Frieden, who had been appointed to the role by President Obama, stepped down.
President Trump has said he wants former Congressman David Weldon to serve as the CDC director. But under a law passed by Congress in December 2022, Weldon must be confirmed by the Senate before starting in the position.
On paper, CDC’s Principal Deputy Director Dr. Nirav Shah is typically supposed to be next in line to serve as the head of the agency. But health officials say it is up to the new leadership at HHS, which oversees the Atlanta-based CDC, to sign off on who is serving as acting director.
Another career official, Dr. Deb Houry, had led the CDC’s transition meetings with the incoming Trump administration and was also considered a leading contender for the position.
CDC’s website says only that who is filling the director position is “to be announced.”
The confusion over who is leading the agency comes as health departments around the country are responding to multiple outbreaks, including an unprecedented outbreak of bird flu, this winter’s seasonal surge of respiratory viruses like influenza, and a record wave of the notorious stomach bug norovirus.
Overseas, health authorities have been closely watching several emerging disease threats, including the possibility of a Marburg virus disease outbreak in Tanzania.
A “short pause” on communications
It also comes amid a department-wide slowdown in public-facing communications across HHS, as the transition works to set up its new clearance processes and public affairs staff.
“HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health. This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization,” Stefanie Spear, the HHS principal deputy chief of staff, told CBS News in an email.
Spear said that there are “exceptions” for “mission critical” announcements, which will be made “on a case-by-case basis.”
The FDA did publish a safety communication on Wednesday morning, announcing a new warning about an allergic reaction to a multiple sclerosis medication.
While current and former health officials say some kind of pause is not unusual during transitions, the decision has disrupted some regularly scheduled releases at the agency.
For example, under the previous administration, the CDC published weekly updates to its tally of COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations. Those figures are closely watched by local health officials and nonprofits, which use them to respond to communities and demographics seeing lagging vaccination trends.
The vaccination data were not released by Wednesday evening.
An upcoming meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria was also canceled. Health officials from several countries had been invited to speak at the meeting for Jan. 28 and 29, to discuss strategies to respond to superbugs.
An email sent to registered attendees on Wednesday afternoon apologized for the cancellation, saying the Trump administration was still considering “its plan for managing federal policy and public communications.”
