US CDC leadership disarray deepens as second-in-command departs

WASHINGTON – Leadership turmoil at the top US public health agency intensified on Feb 23, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) second-in-command stepped down less than a week after its third new director in the past year took the helm.

Dr Ralph Abraham, principal deputy director at the Atlanta-based agency, left due to “unforeseen family obligations”, the CDC said in a statement on Feb 23.

He had drawn controversy because of his scepticism about vaccinations, his backing of unproven Covid treatments and his urging women to avoid Tylenol during pregnancy except when absolutely necessary.

He was in the job for a little less than two months.

The shake-up comes as leaders have been shuffled in Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency that houses the CDC, ahead of the midterm elections.

National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya was named to lead the CDC in an acting capacity, adding it to his current role, on Feb 18.

The changes move away from the vaccine criticism that have become a trademark of Mr Kennedy’s reign.

Dr Abraham, in his former job as Louisiana’s surgeon-general, stopped promoting mass vaccination as a public health strategy and decried “blanket government mandates” for immunisations.

Dr Bhattacharya meanwhile has refuted some talking points in the anti-vaccine movement, including that shots are linked to autism. 

The CDC has not had a permanent director since August 2025, when Dr Susan Monarez was fired just weeks into her tenure after clashing with Mr Kennedy over immunisation policy. Deputy HHS secretary Jim O’Neill had been at the helm of the CDC in an acting capacity until earlier in February.

The Trump administration is searching for a permanent replacement to lead the CDC. BLOOMBERG