TOAs Jay Bhattacharya temporarily takes the helm of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where Bhattacharya is the permanent director, fear his attention will slip further as critical issues at the research agency remain unaddressed.
Bhattacharya first came to prominence as a fierce opponent of Covid mitigations and has become a close ally of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary. Under his watch, the NIH has sharply reduced the funding it gives to researchers, especially studies involving race and gender, while some employees faced hiring freezes and increased health spending at the agency.
At a meeting in January, Ian Morgan, a postdoctoral researcher at the NIH and representative of NIH Fellows United-UAW 2750, rose to ask about a dramatic increase in health insurance costs for early-career scientists employed by the NIH. With a new baby on the way, she’s worried about how to make ends meet with her federal job.
“What can we do to really support early career researchers like me who are struggling to get ahead?” he asked, as other employees applauded.
Bhattacharya, who has said several times that clearing the way for more innovative early-career researchers is a priority for him, did not seem aware of the problem.
“Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that question,” Bhattacharya said. “Come talk to me, let’s figure it out,” he added, asking Morgan to email him to set up a meeting.
But that meeting has not yet taken place. Morgan says that when he emailed to set up a time, the director was too busy to meet with him.
“If you’re already too busy to be able to address the real problems facing scientists at the NIH, how are you now going to have time to handle things with this additional role?” Morgan said, speaking to The Guardian in his personal capacity and as a union delegate.
“There are a lot of things we need to do now,” Morgan said. “We just don’t know what to do now, because he has a decision to make and it seems like he’s too busy to do anything about it.”
The job of NIH director is huge: He oversees a $48.7 billion portfolio as one of the world’s leading research institutions.
“The position of NIH director has always been a full-time job for everyone who has held that position, and no one has treated it as a part-time job before,” said Shiv Prasad, an NIH scientific review officer who spoke in his personal capacity.
Cutting a crucial step for researchers early in their careers is “a crisis for the process” of science in the United States, Prasad said. “It speaks to the future of science: if we can’t keep very bright, motivated young people in science, it’s bad for science, it’s bad for the country.”
However, the success rate of early career scientists applying for R01 grants fell from 26.1% in fiscal year 2024 to 18.9% in fiscal year 2025, according to NIH data. Grants only became slightly more competitive, with a 1% increase in applications over the same period.
The absence of directors of institutes and centers is another factor that worries employees. Of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers, more than half (16) are led by acting directors, a higher rate than Prasad has seen in his three decades at NIH. Permanent directors set research priorities, carry out their institution’s missions, and award funds that Congress has appropriated.
“I think the concern here is that the director search is not following the normal processes,” Prasad said.
And he expressed concern that Bhattacharya spends much of his time lecturing.
“It’s unfortunate that he spends a significant amount of time on right-wing podcasts or addressing right-wing conventions, and perhaps finds time for the NIH in between those appearances,” Prasad said.
Over the past year, Bhattacharya built a leadership team at the NIH, he said last week on the podcast Why Should I Trust You? He said, “I worked very hard last year at NIH to build a leadership team and a set of ideas and priorities… and I’m working to stay in touch with them continually.”
Matthew Memoli, the NIH’s principal deputy director, is widely considered to lead the agency, according to other employees and media reports.
“Even if he’s running things, that’s not as effective as having the NIH director there doing the job,” Morgan said. “You can do marginal things, but we need a director.”
Delegating work to representatives makes it difficult to know who is responsible for what decisions, said Anne Joseph O’Connell, a professor at Stanford Law School.
A Senate-confirmed head of one agency can temporarily assume leadership of a second or even third agency, O’Connell said.
“I should point out that what may be legal is not necessarily desirable,” he said. “Even at a second job, we should worry about damage to governance. It’s hard to do two full-time jobs.”
Bhattacharya is the fourth CDC leader in a year. He will be able to serve as acting director until March 25, that is, 210 days since the last confirmed director left office.
“The director has empowered the NIH leadership team to ensure the agency’s priorities continue to advance until the president nominates and the Senate confirms a permanent CDC director,” said Emily G Hilliard, HHS press secretary. “The CDC leadership team is working closely with Dr. Bhattacharya during this period to continue protecting and serving the American people.”
Prasad emphasized that “the CDC also needs a person there full time.”
“My colleagues at the CDC also need to have someone in that job who will put their full attention on the needs of the CDC. And I think they are also going to suffer because their director will also be working part time,” he said.
In the past, Bhattacharya was able to address some concerns when alerted to them, such as easing a freeze on hiring postdoctoral researchers.
“In fact, it was able to at least help put some attention on the issue of being able to hire postdocs, and although there are still some restrictions on that, we can hire postdocs now,” Morgan said, before adding:
“Part of doing the job is being there and meeting with people and using the influence that you have as director of the NIH to make sure that everything runs smoothly. And if you’re not there and you can’t do it, then things are going to fail. The things that are supposed to be happening are not going to happen.”
