The White House has named Jim O’Neill as the replacement for the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a day after its previous leader was forced out of the job. Jim O’Neill currently serves as the deputy to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, and will replace Susan Monarez after she was in the role for just a month. Lawyers representing Dr Monarez said her sacking was illegal, and alleged she was targeted by Kennedy because she refused ‘to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives’.