RFK Jr.’s CDC rocked by departure of top doctor after just six months

The recently hired chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose arrival gave agency scientists hope, is leaving after just six months.

The Washington Post first reported Jennifer Shuford’s planned departure, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the personnel move. Shuford, the CDC’s deputy director and chief medical officer, confirmed to the Post late Monday that she is leaving.

“I am leaving to spend more time with my family,” Shuford said in a statement. “I am so thankful to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to help lead CDC. It has been an amazing experience, and I will be forever grateful for it.”

Two of the sources said Shuford is expected to leave after next week’s midterm elections. One said she had disagreed with the administration’s approach to vaccine policy.

Shuford, an infectious disease physician and former Texas health commissioner, was hired in April as part of a new four-person leadership team that Trump officials pitched as a way to restore confidence in the agency, the Post reported.

Career CDC scientists told the Post "they had been optimistic about her hiring" because of her public health background and her willingness to speak out about Texas’s measles outbreak last year. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top public health official, has played down measles outbreaks.

Her exit follows new questions about the administration’s vaccine policy, including delays in updating the CDC’s measles database, Trump’s continuing push to change childhood vaccine recommendations and a CDC-funded hepatitis B vaccine study that collapsed last week amid a global outcry.

Last year, Kennedy clashed with then-CDC Director Susan Monarez over vaccine policy and forced her out after less than a month on the job. Her ouster sparked bipartisan backlash and raised questions about whether the agency could be trusted on vaccines and other public health matters. Shuford and the administration’s other recent hires, including CDC Director Erica Schwartz, had worked to ease those concerns, the Post reported.