Among CDC's 23 centers, institutes, and offices (CIOs), more than half have no permanent leadership, raising questions about direction and morale at the agency.
Overall, 10 of the CIOs have permanent leadership, but 11 have acting leadership and one position -- the National Center for Health Statistics -- is vacant, according to a MedPage Today analysis. The Office of Minority Health appears to be in limbo.
On top of that, the agency remains without a permanent director. President Donald Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, MD, MPH, to be CDC director on April 16, but current and former CDC workers believe her nomination is being slow-walked by HHS.
"There's no incentive to put a new CDC director in place because you can continue just dismantling it, sidelining it, or changing it however you want," Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, the former director of CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), told MedPage Today.
"Once he puts [Schwartz] in, all eyes will be on how she's treated," said Jernigan, who resigned after former CDC Director Susan Monarez, PhD, was fired by Trump. "I don't think Kennedy will have the freedom he has right now."
