Louisiana Surgeon General Joins CDC as Principal Deputy Director

Ralph Abraham, the Louisiana Surgeon General, has been named to the No. 2 job at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Abraham has pursued policies as Louisiana’s top health official that closely align with those President Donald Trump has promoted. Since he became the state’s surgeon general in 2024, Louisiana stopped promoting mass vaccination as a public health strategy, and Abraham has decried “blanket government mandates” for immunizations.

Ralph Abraham

Photographer: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images

A spokesperson for Health and Human Services confirmed Abraham joined the agency as the Principal Deputy Director, which supports the director of the CDC. Currently, deputy Health and ...