CDC Director Resigns Over Financial Conflicts of Interest

By Kelly Young

Edited by Susan Sadoughi, MD, and Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, FACP, DFASAM

CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald resigned on Wednesday after it was revealed that she had purchased shares in a tobacco company after assuming her role at the agency, which leads the country's tobacco control efforts. She had been in the position since July 2017.

"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," said Health and Human Services spokesman Matt Lloyd. "Due to the nature of these financial interests, Dr. Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period."

Politico reported that in August, she had purchased between $1001 and $15,000 worth of stock in Japan Tobacco.

She had also purchased shares in Merck, which is developing an Ebola vaccine, and Bayer, which has worked on fighting the Zika virus, Politico reports. Records indicate that Fitzgerald sold these and the tobacco stocks by the end of November.