President-elect Trump has nominated biotech investor Jim O’Neill for deputy secretary of the Well being and Human Companies division.
The HHS deputy secretary oversees the day-to-day operations of all sub-agencies, whose missions embody operating the Medicare and Medicaid program, main public well being emergency preparedness, shaping federal analysis, and extra. O’Neill would additionally oversee the event and clearance of HHS rules, and work underneath Trump’s choose for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Jim and RFK Jr. will battle in unison to make sure each American, and particularly our most treasured useful resource, our kids, will dwell lengthy and wholesome lives and, Make America Nice and Wholesome Once more!” Trump stated in a press release on the platform Fact Social.
O’Neill is near the billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founding the Thiel Fellowship and serving as managing director of his funding agency Mithril Capital Administration. Mithril additionally employed Ohio senator and vice president-elect JD Vance, with whom O’Neill has “loved engrossing conversations about know-how, biology, and tradition,” based on his put up on X. The investor presently sits on the board of ADvantage Therapeutics, a biotech firm growing therapies to deal with Alzheimer’s. He’s an enormous advocate of longevity medication and a libertarian.
O’Neill’s identify got here up over the last Trump administration as a contender for Meals and Drug Administration commissioner. He was thought-about a radical choose for commissioner, as he had beforehand proposed that the company initially approve medicine based mostly solely on their security, and never their efficacy. He finally misplaced out to Scott Gottlieb, a drug trade investor and a extra conventional choose.
This time round, Trump is nominating extra anti-establishment sorts to his cupboard, beginning with RFK Jr., who’s a long-time vaccine critic and chief of the Make America Wholesome Once more. Johns Hopkins surgeon and Covid vaccine mandate skeptic Marty Makary is up for FDA commissioner.
O’Neill has aligned himself with RFK Jr. in varied X posts, together with a put up from November criticizing vaccine mandates and telling followers “let’s make America wholesome once more.” He’s additionally echoed RFK’s issues about fluoride ranges in consuming water, and in regards to the meals trade’s affect on dietary tips.
What can Trump and RFK Jr. really do on well being care?
Earlier in his profession, he labored as a speechwriter and coverage adviser at HHS throughout the George W. Bush administration earlier than turning into an investor. At HHS, he labored on pandemic preparedness, FDA reform, public well being, and different tasks.
The position of deputy secretary at HHS requires Senate affirmation, however O’Neill could have a neater time getting confirmed given his prior authorities expertise. If it takes RFK Jr. some time to win over Congress subsequent 12 months, O’Neill might function appearing secretary.
