“`html 
This piece was featured in The Logoff, a regular newsletter designed to keep you abreast of the Trump administration without allowing political updates to dominate your daily routine. Subscribe here.
Greetings from The Logoff: The CDC has a fresh second-in-command, and their background features a lengthy and troubling history of anti-vaccination statements and activities.
Who is this newcomer? Dr. Ralph Abraham, previously a Congressman and the chief medical officer of Louisiana, has been named the CDC’s new primary deputy director. It seems he commenced his duties over the weekend, yet there has been no formal announcement regarding his appointment to this important position in public health. Our knowledge stems solely from journalistic reports (the Substack Inside Medicine broke the story).
What can we gather about Abraham’s convictions? Abraham has regularly propagated deceptive information about public health, notably supporting unproven Covid-19 remedies such as ivermectin, and his views on vaccinations seem quite aligned with those of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During his tenure as Louisiana’s chief medical officer, Abraham discontinued a program intended to boost childhood vaccination rates and was slow to notify the public of deaths resulting from whooping cough.
What is the broader picture? Federal bodies concerned with public health, such as the CDC, find themselves in the midst of an ongoing dispute concerning vaccines, with Kennedy, a well-known opponent of vaccines, apparently at odds with more reserved figures such as FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. Abraham’s past — which includes advocating for disproven ideas linking vaccines to autism, and the unsupported connection between Tylenol and autism promoted by the White House — suggests he will likely side with Kennedy.
Why is this significant? Abraham’s presence at the CDC is the latest in a string of concerning actions by Kennedy, who had earlier dismissed all members of a CDC advisory board on vaccines and weakened the agency’s upper management by ousting its recently appointed director and prompting numerous resignations. This has led to a gradual decrease in trust for US public health organizations along with an increase in misunderstanding and inaccurate information regarding vaccines.
And now, it’s time to sign off…
Here’s a bit of encouraging news from the sphere of global public health to counterbalance the first section of today’s dispatch: a vital malaria vaccine is about to be available at a reduced price. Though the cut is modest — from roughly $4 to $2.99 for each injection — its cumulative effect should be substantial. Gavi, an international vaccine alliance, indicates that this price decrease will enable them to provide an additional 30 million doses in the coming half-decade, potentially benefiting around 7 million children.
Furthermore, if you’re in search of content somewhat detached from the current news, here’s an excellent extended article to save for the long weekend: Defector profiled the real Marty Supreme, the table tennis virtuoso Marty Reisman, who inspired the forthcoming motion picture bearing the same title (centering on the imaginary Marty Reisman).
“`
Source: vox.com
