Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. turned heads on Tuesday after the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that a prominent vaccine skeptic had been appointed to a high-level position within the agency.
On Tuesday, reports indicated that Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham had been appointed to the principal deputy director role at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The role gives Abraham, a vocal ally of Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda and a skeptic of COVID-19 shots, a key advisor on a series of public health issues, according to NBC News.
Abraham previously told his state's health department to "no longer promote" the COVID-19 vaccine in a memo obtained by the Associated Press.
Medical experts and political observers bashed RFK Jr.'s latest appointment.
“Dr. Abraham, rather than being someone who will push back on that, I think, will further the Secretary’s agenda,” former CDC director Richard Besser, a pediatrician and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told NBC News. “I would expect that Dr. Abraham will have a lot of authority over what takes place within the agency.”
"Another terrible decision," environmental attorney Mike Levin posted on X.
"Ralph Abraham is an irresponsible pick as Deputy Director of CDC," Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization's Center on Global Health Law, posted on X. "As Louisiana Surgeon General, he cancelled vaccine campaigns. He's a major prescriber of ivermectin for COVID-19. Dr. Abraham is likely to further erode the credibility of the CDC. He's a loyalist, not a scientist."
"The darkness descends," health law professor Timothy Caulfield posted on X. "If this wasn't so deadly, it would almost be comical. How much worse can it get? Every day brings a new head-shaking horror."
"He will fit in well with RFK and his band of nihilists," infectious disease doctor Amesh Adalja posted on X.