CDC Director Resigns After Tobacco Stock Trades

Fitzgerald made at least a dozen new investments in tobacco, drug, and food companies — including Merck & Co, Bayer, Humana, and US Food Holding Co — after she began her leadership at the agency.

The investments were not illegal, but government ethics rules require federal employees to find ways to minimize conflicts of interest, either through seeking a waiver, putting the holdings in a blind trust, selling off the holdings, or recusing themselves from matters that could affect the holdings.

Generally, federal agency nominees choose to divest, but the specifics are usually worked out between the appointee and the ethics office at the specific agency. Fitzgerald, 71, had begun -- but had not finished -- divesting when she was named to head the CDC in July 2017. The months-long process attracted scrutiny from some members of Congress in late 2017. But a new report by the news organization Politico shows that she also made new stock purchases after she took office.

"It takes a certain kind of cluelessness for a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to purchase stock in a tobacco company a month after assuming the job as the nation's top public health official," Peter G. Lurie, MD, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says in a statement.

Fitzgerald was slow to sell off her holdings in the lead-up to her appointment and after, Lurie says. "Inexplicably, she decided to make matters even worse -- at a time when her existing holdings were already drawing scrutiny," he says.

"There is an untenable conflict between seeking to personally profit from tobacco use and being a credible voice on tobacco and other public health issues," Vince Willmore, vice president of communications for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says in a statement to Medscape Medical News. "We are pleased that HHS [Health and Human Services] Secretary Azar has accepted Dr. Fitzgerald's resignation and urge him to appoint a strong leader who is committed to reducing tobacco use," he said.

According to Politico, Fitzgerald owned stock in five tobacco companies at the time she was appointed: Reynolds American, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Philip Morris International, and Altria Group Inc.

From WebMD Health