President Donald Trump’s head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned amid a scandal surrounding investments she made in a tobacco company shortly after taking the helm of the agency.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar accepted Brenda Fitzgerald’s resignation Wednesday, according to an e-mailed statement from Matt Lloyd, a spokesman for HHS.
“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,” Lloyd said. “Due to the nature of these financial interests, Dr. Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period.”
One of the stated goals of the CDC is to reduce tobacco use. Politico reported on Tuesday that Fitzgerald bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in Japan Tobacco stocks one month into her leadership of the agency, a post she’s held since July.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.