Dr. Ralph Lee Abraham, who as Louisiana’s surgeon general ordered the state health department to stop promoting vaccinations and who has called Covid vaccines “dangerous,” has been named the second in command at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not announce the appointment, and many C.D.C. employees seemed unaware of it. But the C.D.C.’s internal database lists Dr. Abraham as the agency’s principal deputy director, with a start date of Nov. 23. The appointment was first reported by the Substack column Inside Medicine.
A spokesman for H.H.S. confirmed Dr. Abraham’s new position but declined to comment further. Dr. Abraham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Abraham’s views on some issues align with those of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has endorsed avoiding Tylenol in pregnancy except “when absolutely necessary” because of a possible link to autism. He has also backed ending routine immunization for hepatitis B at birth and removing from vaccines ingredients like aluminum salts, which are added to enhance the immune response.
Dr. Abraham spent decades as a physician and a veterinarian before winning a congressional seat representing Louisiana in 2014. He retired from Congress in 2020.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Abraham backed the drug hydroxychloroquine, a medication normally used to treat or prevent malaria, and supported making ivermectin, a drug for parasitic infections in animals and humans, available over the counter. Both drugs have been shown to be ineffective against Covid.
Dr. Abraham was appointed as Louisiana’s surgeon general in 2024.
At the C.D.C., Dr. Abraham will be the highest ranked official with a medical degree. The agency does not have a permanent director and the acting director, Jim O’Neill, is a former biotechnology executive.
As a top health official, Dr. Abraham halted the state health department’s mass vaccination campaigns. While childhood vaccines are “an important part of providing immunity to our children,” he said, conversations about “whether or not a vaccine is right for a specific person, are best had with the individual’s health care provider.”
Under his leadership, Louisiana’s health department waited two months to alert residents about a whooping cough, or pertussis, outbreak in the state that had caused two deaths. Health departments typically quickly alert the public about outbreaks and set up mass vaccination campaigns.
Dr. Nirav Shah, who served as the C.D.C.’s principal deputy director for two years before resigning this year, called Dr. Abraham “unqualified” for the post and said when he learned that he had been appointed, “My jaw hit the ground.”
“A large part of the principal deputy’s portfolio is emergency response,” Dr. Shah said. “Delayed notifying of the public of at least two pertussis deaths is not just unacceptable, it’s shameful,” he added.
Dr. Abraham has sharply criticized public health policies adopted during the Covid pandemic, calling them “tyrannical.” He has also said the C.D.C.’s recommendations on the vaccines were “woefully out of touch with reality.”
He has repeated misinformation about the shots, including that they contain DNA contaminants and increase the risk of infection. And he has said that he sees people injured by the vaccine “every day” in his clinic.
“Within months of their approval, Covid vaccines were shown to have no third-party benefit in terms of reduced transmission, yet they were still mandated — through both policy and social pressure,” Dr. Abraham said in a statement in February. “That was an offense against personal autonomy that will take years to overcome.”
Hundreds of studies have shown that the Covid vaccines decrease the risk of hospitalization and death. The vaccines also prevented transmission of the virus before the virus began mutating significantly.
In January, he urged Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and chair of the Senate health committee, to confirm Mr. Kennedy to lead the health department.
Although Dr. Abraham called Senator Cassidy his “friend” at the time, the two have since tussled publicly over vaccinations. Senator Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, is a staunch advocate of vaccines and has expressed deep misgivings about Mr. Kennedy’s stance on them.
In February, Senator Cassidy criticized Dr. Abraham’s decision to stop holding mass vaccination campaigns. “Removing these resources for parents is not a stand for parents’ rights,” he said in a statement at the time. “It prevents making health care more convenient and available for people who are very busy.”
Dr. Cassidy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Susan C. Beachy contributed reporting.
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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