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What to know about Jim O'Neill, new acting CDC director
“Like Making Elon Musk the Head of the FAA”—Meet Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill
He’s not a scientist but has deep ties to Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s techno-utopia movement.
"Like making Elon Musk the head of the FAA"—meet acting CDC director Jim O’Neill
He's not a scientist but has deep ties to Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s techno-utopia movement.
www.motherjones.com
“… 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 Guardianreported 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.’”
… 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….”
