The U.S. Senate on March 25 confirmed the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya – a physician, Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research – to lead the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Martin Makary – a surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University – to lead the Food and Drug Administration. On April 3, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former heart surgeon, to serve as CMS administrator.
Last month, President Trump nominated Susan Monarez, a longtime federal employee and current acting CDC director, as his new pick to lead the agency after withdrawing the nomination of former congressman and physician Dave Weldon for the position over concerns his nomination did not have enough votes to clear committee. Monarez has served as acting CDC director since Jan. 23. She previously served as deputy director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Prior to that role, she was a science and technology policy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. If she is confirmed, she also would be the first CDC director in decades to not be a physician.
