Ralph Abraham, MD, the former Louisiana surgeon general, has been quietly named the deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a controversial pick to help lead the nation’s top infectious disease organization as the second highest-ranking CDC official. 

Abraham is a longtime critic of COVID-19 vaccines, advocated for the use of ivermectin during the pandemic, and has stated the United States should stop birth doses of hepatitis B vaccines.  

As the state surgeon general, he told the health department to stop promoting mass vaccination campaigns and did not publicly respond to a pertussis (whooping cough) outbreak in Louisiana earlier this year for two months, even after two infants died. 

In the New York Times yesterday, Nirav Shah, MD, who had served as the CDC deputy director for two years before resigning earlier this year, said Abraham is unqualified. 

“A large part of the principal deputy’s portfolio is emergency response,” Shah told the newspaper. “Delayed notifying of the public of at least two pertussis deaths is not just unacceptable, it’s shameful.”