ATLANTA — Dr. Ralph Abraham, the current surgeon general for the state of Louisiana, has been named principal deputy director at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control on Prevention, multiple national media outlets are reporting. is
During his time as Louisiana’s surgeon general, Abraham ordered his health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations during an uptick in flu cases.
He will now take the No. 2 spot at the CDC under Jim O’Neill, the acting director of the agency.
O’Neill took over after the very public ousting of Susan Monarez in August.
At the time, four senior managers resigned in protest of Monarez’s firing and over Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
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Monarez and Kennedy conflicted over his new COVID-19 vaccine policy, limiting the number of people eligible to receive it.
Abraham is just the latest appointment to the CDC that several outlets have claimed is a vaccine skeptic.
In February, Abraham instructed his health department to stop promoting vaccines for preventable illnesses.
“While we encourage each patient to discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with their provider,” the health department “will no longer promote mass vaccination,” he wrote in an internal memo obtained by CNN that was dated February 13.
While the CDC has made no formal announcement about Abraham, the “Inside Health” newsletter was the first to report the news.
His appointment also comes just days after the CDC made changes to its website to say that “vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim.”
According to Abraham’s biography, he was appointed as surgeon general in 2024. Before that, he practiced family medicine. the
He also served as a three-term member of Congress.
Abraham graduated from the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine and practiced as a veterinarian for 10 years before eventually seeking his MD degree, which he earned at the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport.
Abraham was also a First Lieutenant in the United States Army National Guard and currently flies for the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Air Force’s Civil Air Patrol Green Flag Program.