Trump-appointed CDC deputy director to resign after six months on the job

The deputy director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will resign after six months on the job, according to an agency email obtained by the Guardian.

Dr Jennifer Shuford was appointed by Donald Trump in April as part of a four-person senior leadership team.

The appointments were meant to stabilize the agency after the previous CDC director, Susan Monarez, left less than a month into the job – publicly describing the directives of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, as “unscientific”.

“I am leaving to spend more time with my family,” Shuford said in a statement, sent via email by the CDC director, Dr Erica Schwartz. “I am so thankful to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to help lead CDC. It has been an amazing experience, and I will be forever grateful for it.”

Shuford is expected to leave her post on 12 November, after the midterm elections.

The deputy director was appointed as part of a four-person team in April, alongside Schwartz and two other top leaders. Shuford’s appointment was cheered by public health leaders, such as Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), who would have known her work as Texas health commissioner.

Trump described the team as “Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine [who] have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC”, in a social media post.

In the time since Shuford has worked at the agency, Kennedy has made significant changes that undermine vaccine trust and access. In just a few recent examples: Kennedy fired all 17 of the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel members and replaced them with ideologically aligned appointees, slow-walked death updates to the agency’s measles dashboard, and forced the CDC to publicly contradict scientific consensus on vaccines and autism – a change the Autism Science Foundation said left it “appalled”.

At the same time, the agency has lost one-third of its workforce and 48 distinct measles outbreaks have roiled the US, particularly in Pennsylvania. The overwhelming majority of Americans – including Maha supporters – trust vaccines.

“I am deeply grateful for Dr Shuford’s outstanding leadership and commitment to CDC and public health, especially as she has navigated an exceptionally demanding, high-profile, and constantly evolving environment over the past several months,” said Schwartz in the email announcing Shuford’s departure.

Dr Satish Pillai will serve as acting deputy director and chief medical officer as the team searches for a successor to Shuford.