The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged in a private meeting with staff that he has had “scientific” disagreements with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“Do we agree on every single item? No,” Jay Bhattacharya told a staff Q&A on Wednesday, according to NOTUS, which obtained an audio recording of the meeting. “We may have disagreements about scientific matters, but he listens.”
Their main source of disagreements is Kennedy’s controversial anti-vaccine views. Bhattacharya, a health economist and Stanford professor who gained national attention as a critic of COVID-19 shutdown policies, told employees of the public health agency that he would continue to encourage parents to vaccinate their children.
“The way that we actually get back to having basically zero measles transmission is by making sure that every community in the country knows that this is the best way to protect their kids from this deadly disease,” Bhattacharya said in the meeting.
He added, “Bobby’s fine with me saying that.” The Daily Beast has contacted HHS for comment.
Kennedy was controversially picked to lead HHS after striking a deal with Donald Trump to drop out of the 2024 election. But his opposition to vaccines—and belief that the best protection against diseases like measles is natural immunity—has made it difficult for the CDC to find a replacement for its former director, Susan Monarez.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the White House has yet to find a replacement for Monarez, who was fired in August after less than a month in the role for declining to support Kennedy’s anti-vax agenda, owing to the difficulties surrounding finding a candidate who agrees with the Trump administration’s policies and would also win Senate confirmation.
HHS told the Times on Wednesday that Bhattacharya, who is usually the director of the National Institutes of Health, will continue to run the CDC in an acting capacity until a replacement has been found. Bhattacharya told agency staff that he expected a permanent director to be nominated by Thursday.
Bhattacharya responded to NOTUS’ reporting on X, dismissing the report as clickbait. “I differ on scientific matters with nearly everyone about some things,” he wrote, adding, “I learn much from respectful conversations about those disagreements, including especially with Sec. Kennedy.”
The internal meeting reported by NOTUS is not the first time that Bhattacharya has disagreed with Kennedy. Last month, during an appearance in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, he was asked by Sen. Bernie Sanders if he believed that vaccines cause autism, another belief with no proven scientific basis that Kennedy has repeatedly peddled.
“I have not seen a study that suggests any single vaccine causes autism,” Bhattacharya responded. During the hearing, he also expressed his support for parents ensuring their children are vaccinated against measles in the face of multiple measles outbreaks across the country.
Earlier this month, FDA officials also dismissed some of Kennedy’s controversial claims, declining to approve leucovorin for the treatment of autism despite Kennedy claiming in September that the drug was suitable for that purpose.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in September that he would fast-track the drug for approval for treating children with autism, but two FDA officials who spoke to Politico said that there was insufficient evidence to support its use in that manner.
Instead, the drug, which is also known as folinic acid, has only been approved for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with cerebral folate deficiency who have a specific gene variant (CFD-FOLR1).
