Top CDC Official Steps Down After Six Months

Exclusive: Jennifer Shuford, the CDC’s deputy director and chief medical officer, is leaving the administration after a short tenure.

“I am leaving to spend more time with my family,” Shuford said in a statement. https://t.co/lhVJmkPK6m

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 27, 2026

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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”.

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The CDC's deputy director and chief medical officer, Jennifer Shuford, is resigning after just four months in the role. Shuford, a Trump appointee, is an infectious disease expert and had reportedly disagreed with the administration's vaccine policieshttps://t.co/ZZezvRzNRS

— Scientific American (@sciam) October 27, 2026

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Dr. Shuford previously served as health commissioner for Texas and earned respect from public health officials as she oversaw the state’s response to its measles outbreak last year. She gained a reputation as a data-driven epidemiologist who understood the importance of childhood vaccines. She joined the C.D.C. in June.

“It is highly concerning that the most qualified person in the office of the director is departing the agency,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned from the agency in August 2025 in protest of the administration’s policies.

“These decisions are hard, but based on my experience of Dr. Shuford during the West Texas measles outbreak, I trust her judgment that this is the time to depart,” Dr. Daskalakis said.

News of her planned departure came as a disappointment to people inside and outside the C.D.C. who had hoped for more stability and sparked speculation that she must have disagreed with an upcoming policy from the administration.

Dr. Anne Zink, a former president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and Alaska’s chief medical officer until 2024, has known Dr. Shuford for years. Dr. Zink said she did not know why Dr. Shuford had decided to leave the agency so abruptly, but “taking these jobs, we all have to know our red line and when it is important to walk away,” she said.

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