US CDC deputy director to leave Trump administration, paper says

Jennifer Shuford, the deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will leave the Trump administration after next week’s midterm elections, the Washington Post said on Oct 26, citing sources.The departure follows changes in the US government’s vaccine policy, with President Donald Trump unveiling plans to demand that vaccine makers split certain childhood shots into five separate doses.The CDC and the White House did not respond to requests for comment outside business hours.A former Texas health commissioner, Shuford, who is also the CDC’s chief medical officer, was hired in April among a team including former deputy surgeon general Erica Schwartz, healthcare executive Sean Slovenski, and FDA official Sara Brenner.The reason for Shuford’s departure was not immediately clear, the paper said, citing one person as attributing it to a family health issue, while another said she had disagreed with the administration’s approach to vaccine policy.The step flagged by Trump would advance a long-standing goal of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist who has promoted a link between vaccines and autism that scientists have repeatedly debunked. REUTERS