The CDC Just Appointed an Anti-Vaxxer to the Agency's Second-Highest Position

[douglas9]

Ralph Abraham, a top health official in Louisiana who has peddled disinformation about vaccines, has been quietly named to a prominent position within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Abraham’s appointment was not formally announced, but his name appears on internal databases for the agency, which list him as the principal deputy director for the CDC — the agency’s second-highest ranking position. Because the CDC does not yet have a permanent director, Abraham will likely serve as the de facto head of the agency until one is found.

As former head of Louisiana’s Department of Health, and as the state’s first surgeon general, Abraham became infamous when he banned state health agencies from recommending vaccines to the public. In 2024, he errantly described the COVID-19 vaccine as “dangerous.” He also said that he would like to examine the supposed link between vaccines and autism, a notion that has been thoroughly debunked for decades.

Instead of promoting vaccines, Abraham pushed for a “hands-off” approach to government recommendations. “Government should admit the limitations of its role in people’s lives and pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine,” he said in February.

However, that philosophy didn’t stop Abraham from promoting ivermectin, a medication used to treat parasitic diseases, as a means to treat COVID-19 — a method that gained popularity among anti-vax groups at the time despite having no basis in medical science. Ivermectin has since been found to be ineffective in treating the virus.

https://truthout.org/articles/the-cdc-just-appointed-an-anti-vaxxer-to-the-agencys-second-highest-position/