Department of Health and Human Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., right, conducts the swearing-in ceremony of Jim O’Neill as the Department’s Deputy Secretary, June 9, 2025, in Washington. Amy Rossetti/Department of Health and Human Services via AP
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reeling this week after a major leadership upheaval. Its director Susan Monarez—a microbiologist confirmed by the Senate to lead the agency—was unexpectedly fired just weeks into her tenure. Monarez reportedly clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over what she described as his demands for unscientific vaccine directives. Following her dismissal, top CDC officials resigned in protest, warning that political agendas were overriding scientific integrity and posing serious dangers to public health. They were escorted from the agency’s Atlanta headquarters. One of those officials was Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Daskalakis told CBS News that he was “very concerned that there’s going to be an attempt to re-litigate vaccines that have already had clear recommendations with science that has been vetted.”
In the aftermath, Jim O’Neill, a former tech investor and current Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services under Kennedy, has been appointed acting director of the agency. A longtime associate of billionaire investor Peter Thiel, O’Neill comes not from a background in epidemiology or medicine but from Silicon Valley’s world of venture capital and techno-utopianism. He is especially well-connected in the longevity movement, which seeks to extend human lifespans, and, to a lesser extent, to the “network state” vision of decentralized techno-governance championed by Thiel and other influential Silicon Valley figures.
O’Neill first entered the public spotlight in 2016, when President Donald Trump was organizing his first administration and considered him as a possible candidate to be commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration. At the time, O’Neill made waves by suggesting that the agency should not require clinical trials to prove drugs actually worked—but only that they were safe—and that access to drugs should be wide open. “Let people start using them, at their own risk,” he argued in a 2014 speech.
During the Covid pandemic, O’Neill publicly advocated for treatments that medical authorities had deemed to be ineffective. The Guardian reported that O’Neill “voiced public support for unproven treatments that were not supported by scientific evidence, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as vitamin D as a supposed ‘prophylaxis.’”
O’Neill’s worldview appears to be deeply influenced by his years working alongside Peter Thiel. O’Neill was managing director at Thiel’s Mithril Capital and later CEO of the Thiel-funded venture capital outfit, the Thiel Foundation. He also served as CEO of the Thiel-backed SENS Research Foundation, which seeks to “end aging as we know it.”
As MIT Technology Review reported in June, O’Neill is also connected to a newer wave of techno-optimism taking root in Silicon Valley—the “network state” movement. Popularized by entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan in his 2022 book The Network State, the idea imagines online-first communities that eventually gain territorial sovereignty. Srinivasan has described it as “a country you can start from your computer.” O’Neill appeared alongside Srinivasan during Trump’s early tech-leader summits.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump picked up on the network state concept when he proposed building “freedom cities” on federal land in rural areas. An organization called the Frontier Foundation drafted an open letter in February pushing Trump to act on that idea. Last year, O’Neill posted on X, “Build freedom cities.” Financial disclosure documents uncovered by MIT Technology Review revealed that O’Neill also served on the board of the Seasteading Institute, a network-state project that aims to build a floating nation at sea.
Another of O’Neill’s fans is Niklas Anzinger, an entrepreneur and founder of Infinita City, a biotech hub in Próspera, a special economic zone in Roatán, Honduras, and the crown jewel of the Network State movement. Anzinger advocates for “longevity cities”—experimental urban jurisdictions designed to fast-track biomedical advances through agile regulation and infrastructure. Last November, Anzinger wrote on X that O’Neill “would be my most celebrated pick for the new administration—go Jim!”
The intersection of public health and techno-optimism alarms some experts. On Bluesky, Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University, compared O’Neill’s appointment as acting CDC head to “making Elon Musk head of the FAA.”