1 of 2 | The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta is pictured in February. More recently, Ralph Abraham, vaccine skeptic and Louisiana surgeon general, was picked as CDC principal deputy director, according to media reports. File Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA
Ralph Abraham, Louisiana’s top health official and noted vaccine skeptic, has been hired for the No. 2 position at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abraham’s selection for the CDC’s principal deputy director position was confirmed Tuesday by multiple news outlets. His appointment comes during a tumultuous period for the national public health agency after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Director Susan Monarez following a clash over vaccine policy.
Most recently, Abraham served as Louisiana’s surgeon general and drew headlines earlier this year when he ordered the state Department of Health to stop recommending mass vaccinations. At the time, Abraham issued statements saying the move was intended to rebuild trust with public health officials that he said had been eroded after what he described as missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Conversations about specific vaccines, and whether or not a vaccine is right for a specific person, are best had with the individual’s healthcare provider, who best understands their individual situation and relevant medical history,” Abraham wrote in a post on X in February.
Earlier the Louisiana Department of Health under Abraham’s leadership ordered public health workers to stop promoting the COVID, influenza or mpox vaccines, NPR reported. Abraham’s positions run contrary to mainstream public health guidance and Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told NPR the department’s position amounted to a “parody” of public health.
Abraham has said that he believes the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous and prefers natural immunity, according to USA Today. However, he said he would write a prescription for the vaccine if a patient asked for it and recommended the measles vaccine.
A leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming health secretary, Kennedy has made significant changes to the department vaccine policy. Those include altering the child immunization schedule, ending federal mRNA vaccine projects and replacing the entire 17-member board of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
