Given how far we have come as a country to reducing smoking through education and awareness, helpfully highlighted on the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s amazing that the now former director of the Centers for Disease Control would invest in a tobacco company.
Smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths per year, according to data from the CDC’s own website.
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Brenda Fitzgerald has resigned amidst a Politico report that she invested not only in Japan Tobacco but also in Merck, Bayer, and Humana since taking office. The online publication obtained the information on Fitzgerald’s stock purchasing activity through the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which was introduced by Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-New York) in 2006. The Act was signed into law in 2012.
Politico noted that prior to taking office, she had streamlined her stock portfolio as part of an ethics agreement. That portfolio included investments in five other tobacco companies including Reynolds American, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Philip Morris International and Altria Group, Inc.
In a statement from the Health and Human Services department’s website, a spokesman for HHS Secretary Alex Azar said he accepted her resignation and explained that her investments prevented her from fulfilling her duties at the CDC.
Dr. Fitzgerald owns certain complex financial interests that have imposed a broad recusal limiting her ability to complete all of her duties as the CDC Director. Due to the nature of these financial interests, Dr. Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period.
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Fitzgerald took on the role of CDC director in July last year. She had previously served as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health and been a close ally of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who resigned over his expensive preference for using private and military jets to travel to meetings.
From Price’s statement announcing her appointment:
“Having known Dr. Fitzgerald for many years, I know that she has a deep appreciation and understanding of medicine, public health, policy and leadership—all qualities that will prove vital as she leads the CDC in its work to protect America’s health 24/7.
Prior to Fitzgerald, Tom Frieden had served in the role for eight years. CDC Deputy Director Anne Schuchat has taken on the role of Acting Director until a replacement is found. Schuchat joined the CDC in 2015.
Photo: pepifoto, Getty Images
