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. Brian Christine, nominee to be assistant Health and Human Services secretary for health, testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill July 16, 2025.

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.

Since assuming the post, Christine has led efforts to restrict gender transition care through federal blocks on funding, though the Wall Street Journal reported his private practice office advertised treating transgender people for erectile dysfunction – a claim Christine denied. His personal website also noted his practice offered, “erectile dysfunction in patients who have undergone female-to-male gender reassignment.”

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.

Christine’s account also showed repeated engagement with Vernon Jones, the former Georgia Democratic state representative who switched parties to support Donald Trump and later became a supporter of 2020 election fraud claims. ‘Common Sense’ podcast

Christine’s podcast, called “Common Sense,” focused on abortion, Covid restrictions, transgender rights, religion and what he described as “wokeism” in medicine and government.

In one episode titled, “When Healthcare is Used Against You,” from October 2022, Christine argued the pandemic had been used by the government to control Americans and influence the outcome of the 2020 election.

“This is probably the most important thing that’s happened during the pandemic. There is no question that the pandemic was used to influence the outcome of the 2020 elections,” Christine said, later urging listeners to watch “2000 Mules,” the debunked election fraud conspiracy film whose distributor later apologized and removed it from circulation.

In the same episode, Christine claimed the Covid vaccine “ultimately was proved not to prevent the disease and not to prevent the spread of the disease.”

“We know that there have been people who have died from that, but we also know that most people who get infected aren’t going to die. Most people who get infected aren’t going to get sick. But the government and the left have used the pandemic to control people,” he said. Criticism of vaccine mandates In this March 16, 2021 file photo, a sign advertises a restaurant opening in Santa Monica, California.

“We’ve been forced to take the vaccination, how? Well, the government said, if you don’t take the vaccine, you may lose your job. You may lose your income. There were threats in this way. And so a lot of individuals were forced to take the vaccine and to take the boosters. And if someone wanted to take the vaccine, I think that’s fine. But forcing people to take a vaccination is absolutely wrong.”

He also suggested there may have been a coordinated effort involving “George Soros and the World Economic Forum” to use the pandemic and the so-called Great Reset to benefit multinational corporations while small businesses shut down.

“Now, was there a worldwide concerted effort to close small businesses and to force them out of business? I don’t know if there was, but it looks mighty suspicious to me,” he added. Abortion views

In comments on Facebook and in his podcast, Christine also repeatedly defended Alabama’s near-total abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

In an episode of his podcast titled “Abortion Laws,” Christine said Alabama’s abortion ban should not include exceptions for rape or incest.

“Now that causes the pro-abortion side of the argument to get really upset that we don’t exclude rape and incest,” Christine said. “But just because the pregnancy occurs through an act of violence, that doesn’t mean the unborn child doesn’t have the right to life and we recognize and we believe that another act of violence and an abortion is an act of violence. We recognize and believe that another act of violence isn’t going to make things right.”

“So there’s no exclusion for rape and incest. That’s the Alabama law. I think it makes sense,” he added.