Louisiana health official who halted state vaccine campaign tapped as CDC's No. 2
A Louisiana health official who ordered his health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations this past winter during a surge in influenza cases has been tapped to serve as the new number two leader at the Centers for Disease Control.
Ralph Abraham, who is Louisiana’s surgeon general, has been hired to be the principal deputy director at the CDC, according to a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department who confirmed the appointment. It is not clear when Abraham begins in the position. He is listed in the CDC’s internal directory as principal deputy director; a CDC email listed for him does not work.
The nation’s top public health agency currently has no permanent director, and Abraham would essentially be running the agency. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousted then CDC Director Susan Monarez this summer after she resisted his requests to agree to vaccine recommendations he wanted an influential CDC advisory committee to make. HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill is serving as acting CDC director.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/11/25/cdc-new-deputy-vaccine-ralph-abraham/
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