Adding to a rapid shake-up of the leadership at federal health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Monday that Dr. Ralph Abraham had resigned as the agency’s principal deputy director.
His departure thins the ranks of vaccine skeptics at the agency’s helm, a sign of the administration’s pivot away from the agenda pursued thus far by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his appointees.
Dr. Abraham’s resignation, which comes less than three months into the job, was effective immediately, the agency said in a statement on its website. Dr. Abraham and the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the C.D.C., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As Louisiana’s surgeon general, Dr. Abraham ordered the state health department to stop promoting vaccinations and called Covid vaccines “dangerous.” In his role as second-in-command of the C.D.C., he dismissed the escalating measles outbreaks in the United States and the potential loss of the country’s measles elimination status as the “cost of doing business.”
Under Mr. Kennedy’s leadership, the C.D.C. has rescinded recommendations for several childhood vaccines, prompting medical organizations to sue the Health Department and distance themselves from the agency.
On Monday, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists said it was withdrawing as a liaison organization to the C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes vaccine recommendations for Americans.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has also boycotted the committee’s meetings since last summer.
Dr. Abraham “chose to step down to address unforeseen family obligations,” according to the C.D.C. statement. His resignation follows the sudden appointment last week of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, in a second role as acting director of the C.D.C.
Public health experts expressed skepticism that Dr. Bhattacharya could effectively lead two large agencies located hundreds of miles apart. But he has been more openly supportive of vaccines, calling the measles vaccine the “best way to address the measles epidemic in this country” in a Senate hearing this month.
The C.D.C. has undergone a series of leadership changes since President Trump took office last year. The White House withdrew its nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon, the first candidate for C.D.C. director, just hours before his Senate confirmation hearing.
The administration later successfully nominated Susan Monarez, who had served as acting director, but ousted her less than a month into the job.
Jim O’Neill, who had been serving as the agency’s deputy director since then, left H.H.S. last week for a new role at the National Science Foundation.
Unlike Mr. O’Neill, who was rarely seen at the C.D.C.’s Atlanta headquarters, Dr. Abraham spent time at the agency and reportedly called its staff a family.
“It has been an honor to serve alongside the dedicated public health professionals at the C.D.C. and to support the agency’s critical mission,” Dr. Abraham said in the agency’s statement.
Apoorva Mandavilli reports on science and global health for The Times, with a focus on infectious diseases and pandemics and the public health agencies that try to manage them.
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