Louisiana surgeon general who stopped promoting vaccination will be second in command at CDC

As Louisiana surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham instructed health department staff to stop promoting vaccines for preventable illnesses. Melinda Deslatte/AP/File

Dr. Ralph Abraham, who as a state surgeon general ordered health officials to stop promoting mass vaccination, will serve as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director.

In February, as Louisiana surgeon general, Abraham instructed health department staff to stop promoting vaccines for preventable illnesses.

“While we encourage each patient to discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with their provider,” the health department “will no longer promote mass vaccination,” he wrote in an internal memo dated February 13, the same day Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as secretary of the US