Ally of health secretary worked as speechwriter in George W Bush administration and has no training in medicine
The White House has chosen a top aide to health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to temporarily lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – an appointment that is expected to bolster Kennedy’s goals of remaking federal vaccine policy.
Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor and speechwriter for the health department during the George W Bush administration, was tapped as acting director of the agency that oversees vaccine recommendations, a White House official confirmed to the Guardian.
O’Neill’s appointment follows the firing of infectious disease expert Susan Monarez as the CDC director, after she refused to resign under pressure from Kennedy and his allies in what her lawyers have called a “targeted” retaliation for refusing to support unscientific directives. Her firing has prompted turmoil within the US’s top public health agency, and at least three top officials have also quit in protest.
The agency has been paralyzed in recent weeks, with staff still reeling from mass layoffs and a shooting this month at the agency headquarters that killed a police officer. Meanwhile, Kennedy – a prominent anti-vaccine advocate for two decades – had fired top agency leaders and recently reconstituted an expert panel on immunizations.
