Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health and acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, goes before a House committee this morning, with budgeting on the agenda but vaccine policy likely to dominate.
The NIH will be the focus of the House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, but Bhattacharya will also likely be grilled on his new position at the CDC as well as a range of public health issues.
At a hearing last month with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, he said he had “not seen a study that suggests any single vaccine causes autism,” breaking from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stance on vaccines.
Bhattacharya — who has both a medical degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University — took over the CDC in February from Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley figure with no formal public health or medical experience. He was previously a strident critic of the CDC during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. Recommended
