Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led Hantavirus presser - CNN

As the Trump administration sought to reassure Americans this week that a hantavirus outbreak posed 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 Nebraska promising a 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 show called “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 hosted while 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, despite evidence the vaccines prevented 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 office last November as assistant secretary for health.

While some of his views were previously reported by 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.

His senior role at the Department of Health and Human Services places him in charge of offices responsible for family planning, women’s health, infectious disease policy and the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the uniformed health service of more than 5,000 public health officers who work across the federal government and deploy during public health emergencies. As head of the Public Health Service, Christine also serves as a four-star admiral in charge of the uniformed service.

Christine has been a frequent critic of the Biden administration.

“There are things that are similar that were going on in Germany that are going on in the United States right now,” Christine said on one episode of “Common Sense” in 2022. “There aren’t concentration camps in the United States, but there’s no question that conservatives feel threatened. There’s no questions that conservatives like myself and others feel like the government is being weaponized against us.”

A since-deleted Twitter account of Christine’s also showed commentary in line with MAGA activism, including efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In December 2020, Christine retweeted a call from conservative activist Charlie Kirk to urge Republicans to object to the election results on January 6, 2021.

“BREAKING: Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri will OBJECT to the election results on January 6th This is what courage looks like. This is what it means to FIGHT! RT if every other Republican needs to do the same!” the post read, which was retweeted by Christine.