WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid out 16 strategic initiatives this week, many of them bolstering health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s priorities, according to an internal agency memo obtained by STAT.
The list, which acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill shared with employees, includes “enhancing scientific rigor,” new disease surveillance tools, “downsizing” animal testing, and increasing screening for hepatitis B in pregnant women. The new programs aren’t yet finalized, with details expected in January.
The initiatives offer a view into the administration’s plans for an agency that has been at the center of Kennedy’s reform agenda — and one that has been battered by a shooting, the firing of a new director less than a month into her role, and politics overpowering scientific processes. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
