A leadership vacuum adds to strains on the CDC

## Summary
During the current Trump administration, the embattled agency tasked with protecting the nation's health has had a Senate-confirmed director for less than a month, and it has lost at least a quarter of its staff due to cuts and attrition . Jay Bhattacharya , the director of the National Institutes of Health, took over in mid-February as acting director of the CDC and spoke up in favor of the measles vaccine. Polls show an overall reduction in trust in the CDC's vaccine information but greater trust in scientists at federal health agencies than their leadership since Kennedy became health secretary. "The decline of public trust in federal health agencies started long before the Trump administration," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote to NPR in an email, "That damage was caused by the incompetency of the Biden administration with inconsistent guidance and a culture that told Americans to 'trust the experts' without showing the evidence. Jay Bhattacharya, a former Stanford professor and health economist who has been leading the National Institutes of Health. "It's been a tumultuous year at the CDC, but it's a solid organization that just needs a little bit of leadership and love," Bhattacharya said on the podcast Why Should I Trust You? , about a week after he was named acting CDC director Feb. 18.

## Article Content
Health
A leadership vacuum adds to strains on the CDC
March 25, 2026
12:01 PM ET
Pien Huang
The search for a new CDC director nears a deadline
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is struggling with a leadership vacuum.
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
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Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is once again searching for a new leader.
During the current Trump administration, the embattled agency tasked with protecting the nation's health has had a Senate-confirmed director for less than a month, and it has lost at least a quarter of its staff due to
cuts and attrition
.
Health
Months of tumult and waves of staff cuts take a toll on the CDC
How is morale, for those who remain? Better than it was last year, but still low, a dozen current and recently departed CDC officials tell NPR. The agency is struggling to fulfill key parts of its public health mission, as waves of cutbacks, uncertainty in the workforce and a leadership vacuum have taken a toll.
Staffers were heartened earlier this month, when a federal judge
put a halt
to a year of vaccine policy changes initiated by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the advisory committee he stacked with members opposed by many at CDC, for their lack of vaccine expertise and their history opposing certain vaccines.
And in January, Congress passed a budget
that essentially restored
the agency's funding to previous levels. Another improvement, staffers say, was when
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
, the director of the National Institutes of Health, took over in mid-February as acting director of the CDC and
spoke up in favor
of the measles vaccine.
Still, morale is much worse compared with December 2024, before DOGE took aim at the health agency's budgets and staffing, and before rounds of lurching job cuts and reinstatements left thousands of CDC workers in limbo or severed from their careers. "It's terrible. It's terrible every minute of every day, from the moment I wake up," says a senior official at CDC, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
On a longer timescale, morale is at an all-time low, "even lower than it was during COVID," when public health officials were fighting the pandemic while facing strong criticism, says Aryn Melton Backus, a health communications specialist at CDC who has been on administrative leave for over a year. She is speaking with NPR in her personal capacity.
A trying year for the public health agency
In the past year, the CDC has suffered major losses to its staff, programs and reputation. Its vaccine recommendations, once considered the world standard, are no longer accepted domestically by major U.S. medical organizations and
around 30 states
. And in August a gunman critical of COVID-19 vaccines fired more than 180 shots at CDC's headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer. Kennedy also upended the longstanding process by which science is vetted and used to develop public health policies, striking at the heart of the agency.
Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CDC, has defended the changes as necessary to help rebuild public trust that was lost during the pandemic. Polls show an
overall reduction in trust
in the CDC's vaccine information but greater
trust in scientists
at federal health agencies than their leadership since Kennedy became health secretary.
"The decline of public trust in federal health agencies started long before the Trump administration," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote to NPR in an email, "That damage was caused by the incompetency of the Biden administration with inconsistent guidance and a culture that told Americans to 'trust the experts' without showing the evidence. Secretary Kennedy's mandate is to restore transparency, scientific rigor, and accountability so trust can be earned back. Selective polling snapshots does not change the reality that trust was already broken and rebuilding it requires long-term reform." Nixon says the CDC's current staffing aligns with pre-pandemic levels.
But many in public health say Kennedy's methods have caused drama and chaos, decoupled policy from scientific evidence, and undermined crucial programs that monitor and promote better health for Americans.
Despite recent improvements, current and former CDC staff are still concerned about the agency's long-term prospects. "Having the pendulum swing back is reassuring, but I don't think we're out of the woods yet," says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who resigned in August 2025 after Kennedy fired director Susan Monarez. "Maybe [the Trump Administration] di

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Another improvement, staffers say, was when Dr.
- On a longer timescale, morale is at an all-time low, "even lower than it was during COVID," when public health officials were fighting the pandemic while facing strong criticism, says Aryn Melton Backus, a health communications specialist at CDC who has been on administrative leave for over a year.
- A former CDC scientist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear jeopardizing future job prospects, says no significant tax dollars were saved in last year's cuts.
- A December report from Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio warned that "candidates who support eliminating long standing vaccine requirements will pay a price in the election," since routine childhood vaccines have strong bipartisan support.

### Areas for Consideration
- On a longer timescale, morale is at an all-time low, "even lower than it was during COVID," when public health officials were fighting the pandemic while facing strong criticism, says Aryn Melton Backus, a health communications specialist at CDC who has been on administrative leave for over a year.
- They have been unhappy about a variety of issues including the loss of staff, restrictions on grants, some guest speakers with fringe scientific views, and the many leadership positions occupied by staff in a temporary acting capacity — a problem Bhattacharya has pledged to solve at CDC.
- Budget restored but implementation remains a challenge It's far better to have the largely restored CDC budget that Congress passed earlier this year than one with the drastic proposed cuts, current and former public health officials at CDC say.

### Implications
- Staffers were heartened earlier this month, when a federal judge put a halt to a year of vaccine policy changes initiated by Health Secretary Robert F.
- Selective polling snapshots does not change the reality that trust was already broken and rebuilding it requires long-term reform." Nixon says the CDC's current staffing aligns with pre-pandemic levels.
- But many in public health say Kennedy's methods have caused drama and chaos, decoupled policy from scientific evidence, and undermined crucial programs that monitor and promote better health for Americans.
- She later testified she was fired because she refused to give "blanket approval" in advance of future vaccine policy changes. "Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology," Monarez said.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers cdc, health, agency topics. Notable strengths include discussion of cdc. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 2417.