Desi Talk

www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 12 NATIONAL AFFAIRS February 27, 2026 J ay Bhattacharya, a top Trump ad- ministration health official and an outspoken critic of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s response to the coronavirus pan- demic, will lead the CDC on an acting basis, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel moves. Bhattacharya, who will continue his role as director of the National Institutes of Health, replaces Jim O’Neill, who had served as the CDC’s acting director. O’Neill, who had also served as the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, will be nominated to run the National Science Foundation after he declined a potential ambassadorship to the Organization for Economic Coopera- tion and Development, two of the people said. The installation of Bhattacharya at the CDC is the latest move by theWhite House and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to shake up HHS’s leadership team ahead of the midterms, as the Trump admin- istration seeks to stabilize a department rattled by internal fights and controversial messages. The NewYork Times first reported that Bhattacharya would serve as the act- ing head of CDC, which is charged with protecting Americans from health threats and issues recommendations on vac- cines and other public health matters. Trump officials have said they are plan- ning to find a full-time CDC director, a post that requires Senate confirmation. Susan Monarez, who was confirmed as CDC director in July, was ousted less than a month later after clashing with Kennedy over his plans to change vaccine policies. Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and economist, rose to promi- nence during the pandemic by arguing that the government’s response to the outbreak was too harsh, a stance that put him at odds with public health leaders who said his proposals would imperil the most vulnerable Americans. He co-wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, which was published in October 2020 and called for an end to coronavirus shutdowns. The declaration drew rebukes from govern- ment officials – a clash that ultimately boosted his profile and helped draw the support of Kennedy, a fellow critic of the government’s pandemic response. “The CDC peddled pseudo science in the middle of a pandemic,” Bhattacharya wrote on X in 2024, criticizing agency leaders’ past claim that widespread mask- ing could end the coronavirus outbreak. As CDC’s acting head, Bhattacharya is poised to oversee the agency’s vaccine recommendations, which have emerged as a political flash point as Kennedy has worked to roll them back over the objections of public health leaders. A KFF poll published this month found that 47 percent of U.S. adults now trust CDC for reliable information on vaccines, down from 85 percent in early 2020. Bhattacharya has said he supports vac- cination for childhood diseases. “I think the best way to address the measles epidemic in this country is by vaccinating your children for measles,” Bhattacharya said at a Senate hearing this month. Bhattacharya and other NIH leaders in January also published a commentary in the journal Nature Medicine that criti- cized the public health response to the pandemic led by other agencies. “Many of the recommended policies, including lockdowns, social distancing, school closures, masking, and vaccine mandates, lacked robust confirmatory evidence and remain the subject of de- bate regarding their overall benefits and unintended consequences,” they wrote. “Where enforced, vaccine mandates con- tributed to decreased public confidence in routine voluntary immunizations.” -TheWashington Post White House Taps Jay Bhattacharya, CDC Critic, To Lead Agency For Now By Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, LaurenWeber, Carolyn Y. Johnson PHOTO:NNABELLE GORDON/FORTHEWASHINGTON POST As NIH director, Bhattacharya has served as one of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s top deputies. New Carnegie Survey Of Indian Americans Examines Shifting Vote Preferences, Growing Political Ambivalence, And Rising Concerns About Discrimination ship with the research firmYouGov. The IAAS is a nation- ally representative online survey of 1,000 Indian Ameri- can adults, conducted between November 25, 2025, and January 6, 2026, with an overall margin of error of ±3.6 percent. The survey builds on earlier IAAS waves conducted in 2020 and 2024 and “provides a systematic portrait of Indian Americans’ partisan identities, vote preferences, policy priorities, evaluations of political leaders, and experiences with discrimination,” the authors say. They summarize their principal findings below: 1. Indian Americans offer a largely negative assessment of Trump’s second term. One year into Trump’s second term, large majorities of Indian Americans disap- prove of his job performance, including his handling of the domestic economy, international economic policy, and immigration. Evaluations of Trump’s management of U.S.-India relations are also nega- tive, though many respondents report having no opinion, underscoring the limited salience of foreign policy for electoral decision-making. 2. Indian Americans remain disproportionately Democratic, but their attachment to the party has weakened . Indian Americans continue to identify with the Democratic Party by wide margins, yet the share of Democrats has declined since 2020, while Republican identi- fication has increased modestly over that period. Ideologically, the community clusters most heavily at the center of the ideological spectrum, with moder- ates representing the single largest group. 3. Widespread disapproval of Trump’s policies has not neatly translated to clear gains for Democrats. While a clear ma- jority of Indian Americans supported the Democratic presidential ticket in 2024, Trump made notable gains compared to 2020, particularly among young men. In 2026, support for Trump has softened, but Democratic support has not rebounded commen- surately, signaling rising dissatisfaction with both major parties. 4. Heightened exposure to discrimination is a defining feature of Indian American life. Indian Americans report wide- spread perceptions of bias, frequent encounters with online racism, and marked levels of personal harass- ment or discrimination. However, there has been no significant change in the share of respondents reporting direct, personal experience with discrimi- nation. 5. Discrimination is reshaping behavior but not prompting widespread exit from the United States. While many respondents report preemptively changing how they live, speak, or participate in public life to avoid harassment, most do not plan to leave the country, and a majority still recommend the United States for employment. 6. Reactions to symbolic political events reveal ideological polarization more than identity-based attachment. Indian Americans express substantial enthusiasm for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, driven primarily by ideological concerns rather than shared ethnic- ity or religion. Conversely, public remarks by Vice President JDVance regarding religion and marriage elicited strong negative reactions linked to con- cerns about religious inclusion, representation, and belonging. - Continued From Page 10