Scoop: The new #2 at CDC is a top ivermectin prescriber who ended Louisiana’s vaccine-promotion media campaigns.
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We have some breaking news that I believe we are first to report, right here in Inside Medicine. My thanks to the HHS employees who continue to bravely speak out. It is important that we amplify them. Thank you for your help doing that—by reading, sharing, and supporting this work.
The CDC’s internal email server now lists Louisiana physician Dr. Ralph Lee Abraham as the agency’s Principal Deputy Director. Until now, Dr. Abraham has served as Louisiana’s Surgeon General. The above screenshot was provided to Inside Medicine on the condition of anonymity. While the news has not yet been publicly announced, an HHS spokesperson confirmed the news to me this morning.
“An irresponsible choice.”
One source, a national public health expert who previously served in government and is familiar with Dr. Abraham’s career, said that this would be “an irresponsible choice.” He added that “he’s a dangerous guy because he’s very slick,” referring both to his style and his experience as a US Congressman from 2015-2021.
Here are some recent highlights from Dr. Abraham’s career:
In February 2025, Dr. Abraham made headlines by announcing that Louisiana would end mass vaccination campaigns. While Abraham may not be a strict anti-vaxxer (he said that childhood immunizations are “important”), the announcement came the same day that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services—not exactly a subtle way to audition for a top job within HHS.
The state of Louisiana, under Dr. Abraham’s leadership, failed to alert physicians about two whooping cough deaths (and the largest outbreak in the state in 35 years) in 2024-2025 for months, despite medical professionals’ attempts to raise the issue. Whooping cough (also known as pertussis) is a vaccine-preventable disease, making outbreaks crucial information for the public.
A MedPage Today analysis found that out of around 12,000 practicing physicians in 2021, Dr. Abraham was the 7th highest prescriber of ivermectin in the state, a drug that by then had already been found in some high-quality clinical studies to be ineffective in treating Covid-19. Dr. Abraham prescribed the medication 422 times in 2021, which meant that he was personally responsible for 1.1% of the state’s ivermectin prescriptions. In fairness, that pales in comparison to Texas physician Dr. Stella Immanuel (yes, the demon sperm lady), who milled out 31,979 ivermectin prescriptions in 2021, thereby accounting
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