Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser | CNN Politics

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