RFK Jr. deputy Jim O'Neill picked to lead CDC after former head's ouster

Jim O'Neill has been chosen to serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a source familiar with the matter confirmed Thursday — one day after the CDC's Senate-confirmed leader was ousted.

A former tech investor, O'Neill currently serves as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, working under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy confirmed O'Neill's appointment in a message to CDC staff obtained by CBS News, saying he hopes to "rebuild this institution into what it was always meant to be: a guardian of America's health and security."

CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.

He will take over the CDC after a tumultuous 24 hours for the Atlanta-based public health agency. Susan Monarez was terminated by the White House on Wednesday after just weeks on the job, leading her lawyers to argue that only President Trump can lawfully fire her. They also allege Monarez was "targeted" for resisting "unscientific, reckless directives."

At least four other top CDC leaders have also resigned in recent days, in some cases criticizing the Trump administration's views on vaccines or cuts to the agency.

O'Neill has served as deputy HHS secretary since June, after working at the agency during former President George W. Bush's administration. His HHS biography credits him with leading reforms at the Food and Drug Administration to "overhaul food safety regulations" in the late 2000s.

O'Neill previously worked in the orbit of Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and GOP megadonor. He served as CEO of the nonprofit Thiel Foundation, and he co-founded the Thiel Fellowship, a scholarship program that offers $200,000 to college-age entrepreneurs who agree to stay out of school, according to his HHS bio. O'Neill also worked at Thiel's hedge fund, Clarium Capital.

Monarez was fired from the CDC on Wednesday, less than a month after the Senate confirmed her to lead the agency. She previously served as acting director starting in January.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said Monarez "is not aligned with the President's agenda of Making America Healthy Again." A lawyer for the director, Mark Zaid, called the move "legally deficient" because she was fired by a White House staffer rather than Mr. Trump himself.

The CDC has had a tumultuous few months, marked by hundreds of layoffs and sweeping changes spearheaded by Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who has questioned the COVID-19 shots and promoted discredited theories linking certain childhood vaccines to autism. Kennedy fired every member of the CDC's independent vaccine advisory panel earlier this year.

There has been friction between Kennedy and Monarez — who has said vaccines "absolutely save lives" — over the health agency's approach to vaccines, CDC officials told CBS News.

The agency is also still grappling with a shooting outside its headquarters earlier this month. Police said the gunman harbored "discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations."

In a resignation email sent to CDC staff on Wednesday, the agency's former Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry warned of a "rise of misinformation" about vaccines, and wrote: "For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations."

And Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, publicly criticized Kennedy's views on vaccines and approach to leading HHS in a scathing resignation letter posted on X.

"Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people," Daskalakis said.

The flood of resignations and Monarez's firing drew outrage from congressional Democrats and pushback from some Republicans.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who chairs the Senate health committee and voted to confirm Kennedy, said the departures will "require oversight."

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington called Kennedy a "dangerous man" and argued he should be fired.

Kennedy reacted to the upheaval on Thursday by calling the CDC "very troubled."

"There's a lot of trouble at CDC, and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture," he said at an event in Texas. "I'm very confident in the political staff that we have down there now."