CDC gets new acting director as leadership turmoil leaves agency reeling

Jim O'Neill, a top deputy to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an administration official.

The official requested anonymity to discuss a personnel change that has not been formally announced. The administration wants O'Neill to replace Susan Monarez, whom the White House is trying to remove only a month after starting the job.

Monarez is fighting to keep her job. Her removal has left the nation's top public health agency reeling and three senior officials were escorted from its headquarters Thursday.

The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as Kennedy tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research.

The chaos comes weeks before a key advisory committee, which Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics, is expected to meet to issue new recommendations on immunisations.

Two Republican senators called for congressional oversight and some Democrats said Kennedy should be fired. He is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on September 4.