Mississippi Free Press
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Mississippi will be keeping its top doctor, State Health Officer Dan Edney, after the Trump administration delayed its search for a new director for the Centers for Disease Control.
Edney, who is the head of the Mississippi State Department of Health, was previously on the administration’s shortlist for leadership of the institution. But finding a qualified candidate palatable to those with real medical expertise and one appealing to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who promotes unscientific medical practices and conspiracy theories, has proven to be virtually impossible. Neither Edney nor others named are expected to be nominated to the position in the near future.
That leaves Dr. Jay Bhattacharya—a health economist most famous for his declaration that mass exposure to COVID-19 with “focused protection” only for those most at risk was the ideal response to the pandemic—as the acting director of the agency.
In both a public health conference and a Thursday interview with the Mississippi Free Press, Edney confirmed that, after consideration, he would not pursue the opportunity to leave the state to take the post at the CDC in Atlanta.
“ I was incredibly honored when I received calls about my willingness to interview,” Edney told this reporter. “But I made sure everybody knew, with all the interviews, that I was not looking for another post. I’m extremely happy with my current position.”
Edney acknowledged that he’d put real thought in the possibility.
“Of course, when there’s a national-level opportunity, you need to look at it,” he said. “But I never had a strong feeling of being called to it.”
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Edney’s inclusion in the search for a new CDC chief made national news, evidence that the Trump administration was considering a meaningful break with the RFK Jr.-led “Make America Healthy Again” ideology that has dominated the administration’s health-care agenda in Trump’s second term.
That Edney, a strong proponent of vaccination, was under serious consideration for the CDC position, did not pass unnoticed by some RFK Jr. associates, who highlighted his consistent pro-vaccine position as evidence that he would damage their movement if confirmed. Aaron Siri, a close legal advisor to the current HHS secretary who recently petitioned the FDA to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, wrote on social media that Edney “has no business dispensing bandaids, let alone running the CDC.”
Had he been confirmed, Edney would have likely been put directly at odds with his direct superior, HHS Secretary RFK Jr., the same untenable position that led to the expulsion of the previous CDC Director, Dr. Susan Monarez. Kennedy Jr. fired Monarez last August; she later testified to Congress that she had refused to go along with Kennedy’s vaccine proposals and agency firings.
Edney did not comment directly on the contrast between himself and the Trump administration’s past choices for medical leadership, but reaffirmed that he was a strong believer in the life-saving power of vaccination.
“ The importance of vaccinations is really settled science,” he said. “We have been studying these issues for 40 years, and we continue to study them. As new vaccines come online, we have to intensely continue to study.”
Nor has he grown any more sympathetic to efforts to tie vaccination to conditions like autism in children.
“Vaccine rates nationwide have been steadily declining over a decade, and yet autism rates continue to climb,” he said. “That linkage is not there. … At some point, the conversation needs to change to finding the real causes for these things we’re concerned about.”
Edney said that he is in strong support of parental rights—but that such rights have to be balanced with public health.
“ Our families need to make the decisions that we feel best for our children and grandchildren, but those decisions cannot cause harm to others,” he said. “The whole reason for the vaccine regulations were that we had way too many children getting seriously ill. … We had children being born deaf because their mom got measles during pregnancy, developing encephalitis as an infant from getting measles. Name whatever complication you want. We needed to protect the children there.”
Edney, had he been confirmed for the position, would have focused on improving the CDC’s bilateral cooperation with state health agencies.
“The biggest thing the country needs is a healthy CDC: those of us at the state level depend on the CDC for so much in terms of expertise and capabilities that we just cannot have at the state level,” he said.
“The workforce at the CDC needs to be encouraged, appreciated and recognized for all that they do,” Edney continued. “And the leadership at the CDC needs to understand what servant leadership means, and that humility is a superpower. And that the best way to exert any needed public health authority is to never do it in an authoritarian manner.”
Edney still has years left in his term as State Health Officer, a post he intends to carry through to its conclusion. His top priority in the time allotted to him, he told the Mississippi Free Press, is tackling the state’s infant and maternal mortality crises.
“ My number one priority is to do whatever it takes to reduce the rate of infant mortality in our state to lower than it has been in the last 20 years,” Edney said. “That’s the minimum goal. I want us to fight our way to below the national average. It’s doable. It may take more time than I have, but getting us on the right trajectory is critical.”
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Investigative Reporter Nick Judin joined the Jackson Free Press in 2019, initially covering the 2020 legislative session before spearheading the outlet’s COVID-19 coverage. His hard-hitting reporting, including probing interviews with state leaders and public-health experts, has earned national recognition. Now with the Mississippi Free Press, Nick continues to provide Mississippians with reliable, up-to-date pandemic insights, while also covering critical issues like Jackson’s water crisis, housing challenges, and other pressing community concerns.
Email the Jackson, Miss., native at nick@mississippifreepress.org.
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