Feb 23 (Reuters) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Principal Deputy Director Ralph Abraham has stepped down, the agency said on Monday, announcing the exit of its second top official this month.
The CDC, which is temporarily being run by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, said the departure was effective immediately and attributed it to unforeseen family obligations. It did not comment on who would replace Abraham.
His exit follows that of Jim O’Neill, who was acting CDC director since August in addition to him functioning as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Abraham started at the CDC on January 5 and was most recently Surgeon General of the state of Louisiana where he led a move to stop promotion of mass vaccination and criticized the COVID vaccines.
The CDC has been hit by budget cuts, staff losses and a series of controversies under Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic who fired the director he had appointed, Susan Monarez.
U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Bhattacharya stepped in last week as acting director of the agency. Trump administration sources have said the moves are part of positioning ahead of November elections.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Arun Koyyur)
