As the Trump administration sought to reassure Americans this week that ahantavirus outbreakposed little risk to the public, Dr. Brian Christine, one of the top public health officials in charge of infectious disease policy, stood before reporters in Nebraskapromisinga response “grounded in science” and “grounded in transparency.”
Before he joined the Trump administration last year, Christine was an Alabama-based urologist who specialized in penile implants. He has little public health experience and a history of far-right commentary and promoting conspiracy theories. He’s said the Covid pandemic led to a wider government plot to control people, compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany and suggested the Covid vaccine had little effect in stopping the pandemic.
He once hosted a YouTube showcalled“Erection Connection,” a professional YouTube series on erectile dysfunction for fellow urologists.
A CNN review of archived podcast episodes, social media posts and radio appearances found that Christine repeatedly framed public health institutions, the federal government and pandemic-era policies as tools used to target conservatives and religious Americans.
In comments made on a podcast he hostedwhile running for Alabama state Senate in 2022,Christine questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
He also advocated for abortion bans without exceptions for rape or incest and suggested there may have been a worldwide effort involving George Soros and figures associated with the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” to use the pandemic to force small businesses to close.
Christine repeatedly criticized Covid mandates, arguing that the vaccines neither prevented disease nor transmission, despiteevidence the vaccinesprevented millions of deaths.
Andrew Nixon, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Media Relations at the US Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN, “Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Christine remains focused on executing President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s agenda to Make America Healthy Again and deliver on President Trump’s Executive Order to protect our children against chemical and surgical mutilation.”
Christine, a surgeon who went directly from private practice to helping lead the federal government’s public health response,took officelast November as assistant secretary for health.
While some of his views werepreviously reportedby The Washington Post during his nomination process, CNN reviewed several additional podcast episodes that appeared to have been deleted from YouTube and Apple Podcasts before his confirmation but remained publicly accessible on Vimeo, where they had been embedded on his former campaign website.
Source: Drudge Report
