What happened

The Health and Human Services Department confirmed Tuesday that Louisiana’s surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham, has been hired as principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HHS “did not announce the appointment,” though Abraham’s start date was listed as last Sunday in a CDC database, The New York Times said, and “many CDC employees seemed unaware” the prominent vaccine skeptic had been named as the agency’s second-in-command.

Who said what

Abraham joins other “vaccine critics working at the CDC” under longtime “prominent anti-vaccine activist” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Washington Post said. Abraham ordered Louisiana’s health department to stop promoting vaccinations after being appointed surgeon general last year, and

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