2026年3月25日 / 美国东部时间下午8:04 / KFF健康新闻
美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）代理主任、美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）院长杰伊·巴塔查里亚（Jay Bhattacharya）在周三的员工会议上告诉机构员工，特朗普总统将很快提名CDC的永久主任。
根据KFF健康新闻获得的录音，巴塔查里亚曾向CDC员工暗示，特朗普可能最早在周四任命该机构的新领导人。“但如果没有，我认为不会有太大变化，”他说。
尽管他作为代理主任的正式任期定于周三结束，但巴塔查里亚博士将继续领导该机构，直到最高职位有人接任。与此同时，包括Axios和《华盛顿邮报》在内的新闻媒体报道称，由于获得参议院确认面临挑战以及其他政治压力，政府正在推迟填补永久主任职位。
巴塔查里亚博士在会议开始时承认，这个饱受困扰的机构过去一年面临的困境。员工经历了多轮裁员，8月一名枪手袭击了CDC的亚特兰大园区，造成一名警察死亡和重大财产损失。“我想坦诚地承认，我知道过去一年对CDC和在座的每一位来说都非常艰难，”巴塔查里亚博士说。
他表示，该机构已开始填补领导层空缺。在与该机构高层领导的首次会面中，他说：“我注意到几乎每一位领导都是代理职务。”
“我们在填补全机构关键职位方面取得了进展，”他说，“领导稳定对我们完成使命至关重要。”
他说，目标是让该机构处于“稳固、安全的状态”，以便能够“摆脱去年所见的如此多的动荡”开展工作。
美国国立卫生研究院院长杰伊·巴塔查里亚自2月起同时担任疾病控制与预防中心代理主任。埃里克·哈克勒罗德/KFF健康新闻
巴塔查里亚博士邀请CDC员工提问，他们反复询问人员流失、士气、工作安全感以及特朗普总统退出世界卫生组织（WHO）的决定。
“WHO退出的政治问题超出了我的职责范围，”巴塔查里亚博士说，“我所知道的是，没有CDC，世界的健康状况将会糟糕得多。”
员工关切
一名员工告诉巴塔查里亚博士，该机构在过去一年中“损失了大量内部能力和专业知识”，“员工继续难以开展工作”，并补充说“某些情况令人士气低落”。
另一位发言者说：“CDC没有领导也能运作。我们没有主任也能运转。如果您不在，整个团队也会让CDC继续运转。”
将某些联邦雇员重新归类为与政策相关角色并减少其文官制度保护的“F类人员计划”（Schedule F）引发了员工最强烈的反应。尽管该政策尚未完全实施，但它可能会让特朗普更容易解雇数千名联邦雇员。
“现在最让我们害怕的是Schedule F，”一名员工表示，“我们担心‘随意解雇’意味着你会被解雇、离开这里。”
“Schedule F的斗争超出了我的级别，”巴塔查里亚博士回应道。他说，他的重点是确保“工作得到支持”。
他表示，该机构应该寻求“从根本上使我们的工作去政治化”，这样“每个美国人都会看到我们在为他们的利益服务”。
“当我说‘去政治化’时，我的意思不是你不能谈论困难问题或讨论困难情况，”他补充道，“我的意思是你可以自由地谈论这些困难问题，而不必担心遭到报复。”
在招聘和运作方面，他指出正在进行的努力，但承认存在延迟。他说，监督CDC的卫生与公众服务部（HHS）“正以官僚主义的速度行动”，并补充说他正在尽最大努力。“我们必须度过过去的一年，我认为我们现在真的有机会做到这一点。”
疫苗政策
关于疫苗问题，巴塔查里亚博士表示，他担任CDC代理主任后做的第一件事之一就是录制一段视频，“强烈鼓励父母为孩子接种麻疹疫苗”。
他说，重建信任需要参与。这意味着与社区合作时不贬低他们，尊重他们的“想法和价值观”，他说。
巴塔查里亚博士表示，他希望NIH和CDC在HIV预防方面加强协调。他将自己的方法描述为“实施科学策略，以便我们能够利用HIV工具包的这两个部分真正结束HIV疫情”。
寻找CDC永久主任的工作由HHS官员代表白宫和卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr.）领导。
巴塔查里亚博士说，他与肯尼迪是朋友，并表示“媒体上对他的刻板印象”是不公平的。肯尼迪“确实真心希望让美国人民更健康，”他说。
目前，巴塔查里亚博士表示，他预计将继续留任CDC，无论是作为代理主任还是以主任身份行事，“不管那到底意味着什么”。
他调侃这种模糊性：“就像《办公室》（美剧）里的情节，你知道吗？”
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CDC’s acting chief promises a return to stability in a tumultuous moment
March 25, 2026 / 8:04 PM EDT / KFF Health News
President Trump will soon nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its acting chief, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, told agency employees at a Wednesday staff meeting.
According to a recording obtained by KFF Health News, Bhattacharya at one point suggested to CDC staff that Mr. Trump could name a new leader for the agency as soon as Thursday. “But if not, I don’t think much will change,” he said.
Though his official position as acting director was set to expire Wednesday, Dr. Bhattacharya will continue to lead the agency until the top spot is filled. Meanwhile, news outlets including Axios and The Washington Post reported that the administration was postponing filling the permanent director job amid the challenges of gaining Senate confirmation and other political pressures.
Dr. Bhattacharya opened the meeting by acknowledging the struggles the beleaguered agency has faced over the past year. Workers faced multiple rounds of job losses, and a gunman attacked the CDC’s Atlanta campus in August, killing a police officer and causing significant property damage. “I want to acknowledge very honestly that I know that it has been such a difficult year for the CDC and for every single one of you here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.
He said the agency has begun to fill its leadership gaps. During his first meeting with the agency’s top leaders, he said, “I noticed almost every single one of them is acting.”
“We’ve made progress in filling key roles across the agency,” he said. “Leadership stability is essential to delivering our mission.”
The aim, he said, is to leave the agency in “a solid, secure place” so it can do its work “without so much of the turmoil that we’ve seen the last year.”
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, has also been serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention since February. Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News
Dr. Bhattacharya invited questions from the CDC staffers, who repeatedly asked about staffing losses, morale, and their job security, as well as Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
“The politics of WHO withdrawal are above my pay grade,” Dr. Bhattacharya said. “What I do know is that without the CDC, the world will be in much worse health.”
Workforce concerns
One employee told Dr. Bhattacharya the agency had lost a “huge amount” of “internal capacity and expertise in the past year” and it “continues to be very challenging for staff to do their jobs,” adding that “certain conditions are a bit demoralizing.”
The CDC can “function without leaders,” another speaker said. “We function without directors. And this entire team will make CDC run without you if you’re not here.”
Schedule F, an effort to reclassify certain federal employees in policy-related roles and reduce their civil service protections, drew some of the strongest statements from the staff. While it’s not fully implemented, the policy could make it easier for Mr. Trump to fire thousands of federal workers.
“What’s scaring the hell out of us right now is Schedule F,” an employee said. “We are terrified that ‘at will’ means you’re gone, you’re not here, you’re fired.”
“The Schedule F fight’s above my level,” Dr. Bhattacharya replied. He said his focus is on making sure the “work is supported.”
He said the agency should seek to “depoliticize what we do fundamentally” so that “every American sees us as working for their benefit.”
“When I say ‘depoliticize,’ I don’t mean you can’t say the hard or talk about the hard things,” he added. “I mean that you’re free to talk about the hard things without fear that you’re gonna be retaliated against.”
On hiring and operations, he pointed to ongoing efforts but acknowledged delays. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, is “moving at the speed of bureaucracy,” he said, adding that he’s trying his best. “We have to move past the last year, and I think we now have an opportunity really to do that.”
Vaccine policy
On vaccines, Dr. Bhattacharya said one of the first things he did in his role as acting CDC director was to record a video “strongly encouraging parents to vaccinate their kids from measles.”
He said rebuilding trust requires engagement. That means working with communities without denigrating them, and respecting how “they think and their values,” he said.
Dr. Bhattacharya said he would like the NIH and CDC to coordinate more, particularly on HIV prevention. He described his approach as “an implementation science strategy so that we can use these two pieces of the HIV tool kit to actually end the HIV pandemic.”
The search for a permanent CDC director is being led by HHS officials on behalf of the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Dr. Bhattacharya said he’s friends with Kennedy and called “the caricature of him that I’ve seen in the press” unfair. Kennedy “really does have a deep desire to make America healthy,” he said.
For now, Dr. Bhattacharya said, he expects to stay in place at the CDC, as “either acting director or acting in the capacity of the director, whatever the heck that means.”
He joked about the ambiguity: “It’s like an ‘Office’ episode, you know?”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.