Dr. Ralph Abraham, who as a state surgeon general ordered health officials to stop promoting mass vaccination, will serve as the U.S. 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 Feb. 13, the same day Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS did not announce Abraham’s hiring but confirmed his new role. Health newsletter Inside Medicine first reported the n

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