PUBLIC HEALTHCDC’s New Deputy Director Is Vocal Critic of Vaccines, Advocated for Ivermectin
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named a critic o COVID vaccines — and a promoter of a worthless alternative to such vaccines – as deputy director of CDC.
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 [ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine, was pushed by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists as an effective anti-COVID treatment, but large-scale studies proved it was worthless against COVID] 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.”
Stephanie Soucheray is a news reporter for CIDRAP News. The article is published courtesy of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy (CIDRAP).
