Dr. Ralph Abraham on October 11, 2019 in Lake Charles, La. Spoke at Trump’s re-election rally in. At the time, Abraham was a Republican congressman running for Governor of Louisiana. He lost that race, but was named the state’s first Surgeon General in 2024.
Gerald Herbert/AP
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Gerald Herbert/AP
The second-highest ranking official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be Dr. Ralph Abraham, head of the Louisiana Department of Health.
He has raised questions on the safety of the Covid vaccine and has forbidden his department from promoting the vaccines among the public.
Abraham will join the agency as principal deputy director, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official who was not authorized to speak to the media about a personnel matter.
A former Republican congressman and physician practicing in Richland Parish, Abraham has been a vocal supporter of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and shares some of his views on vaccines.
Abraham, 71, has called COVID vaccines “dangerous.” During a state legislative meeting in September 2024, Abraham said he would support an investigation into the discredited link between vaccines and autism.
The post has been vacant since Dr. Nirav Shah, who worked under the Biden administration, left the post in February.
Shah described Abraham’s appointment as “tyrannical”.
The CDC is part of the Department of Health and Human Services under Kennedy’s leadership. The current acting director of CDC is Jim O’Neill, who most recently worked as an investor.
Shah said that, because neither Kennedy nor O’Neill are doctors or scientists, Abraham’s medical degree is useful in advancing his ideas.
Shah said, “With the addition of Dr. Abraham, they now have a scientific gloss that they can apply to their anti-vaccine theories.”
He added, “He gives Secretary Kennedy some scientific and medical cover for his disgusting and unscientific beliefs.”
Abraham was named Louisiana’s first surgeon general in 2024, under Republican Governor Jeff Landry.
Soon after, Abraham banned the promotion of Covid, flu and Mpox vaccines by the state health department. Hours after Kennedy was confirmed as health secretary, he banned all vaccine promotions and events by the Department of Health in February.
In late 2024, cases of pertussis began to increase in Louisiana, eventually increasing to 387 cases, the worst outbreak of pertussis in the state in 35 years.
At the beginning of the outbreak, two infants died from the disease. Infants are not eligible for their first pertussis vaccine until 2 months of age, but they can acquire immunity if their mother was vaccinated during pregnancy.
After the infants’ deaths, the Alabama health department waited three months before issuing an official alert to physicians and warning the public in a press release.
“Dr. Abraham’s record shows that when a public health emergency arises, his tendency is to suppress it,” Shah said.
In the event of the next pandemic, “it could mean the difference between controlling a large outbreak versus letting it grow and explode,” he added.
The principal deputy director is second in command at CDC, said Anne Schuchat, who worked there for 33 years, including principal deputy director from 2015 to 2021.
Most of the appointees are CDC employees who have worked at the agency for many years, she said, and have experience in crisis management and emergency response to public health threats.
Responsibilities can range from overseeing every aspect of CDC’s work within the US to coordinating emergency responses to outbreaks around the world.
Schuchat called Abraham’s appointment “scary”.
“This appears to be another step away from health and toward danger,” Schuchat said. “We know vaccinations are saving lives and protecting health and stopping outbreaks, and ideology should not outweigh the evidence.”
In the Louisiana legislature, Abraham supported bills to ban fluoride in public water systems and expand access to ivermectin to treat COVID, despite evidence that it is not effective against COVID. The fluoride bill failed, but the ivermectin bill passed.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, said selecting Abraham for the position was an “irresponsible choice.”
He said, “Dr. Abraham has very little confidence in science and is likely to further undermine the CDC’s credibility.”
HHS has not said when Abraham will begin his new role.
This story comes in partnership with NPR WWNO And kff health news,
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