Brenda Fitzgerald, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resigned on Wednesday following a report that she had invested in tobacco and pharmaceutical company stocks while overseeing an agency tasked with promoting public health.
Her resignation, which came less than 24 hours after the disclosure of her investments by Politico, was announced in a brief statement by new Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was sworn in earlier this week.
CDC staff members were not immediately informed of Fitzgerald’s resignation, STAT has learned; they heard of it through news reports.
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Marsha
I have no legal way to check them out. Sure I can make some calls to my contacts at the Senate but that won’t get answers only more rumors. The issue is simple
Why would someone with as many years in public office as she has plus as many years as a doc NOT know the rules of investment AND buy stock AFTER being appointed to the highest position in the CDC?
I have worked for enough alphabet agencies that I know the rules by heart and there is NO way that I “forgot” that I can’t buy ABC or XYZ corp stock
PLUS when given the opportunity to simply sell it she refused, suggesting that it was too complicated to sell.
Seriously??? Call the broker and say the words “dump it” and then don’t even wait to hear the click of the phone and you are divested
There is WAY more to this then we are led to believe
I am guessing she no longer wanted the heat of the CDC and the soon to be budget hassles and instead took it on her own excuse to back out
I have NO problem with that but why make up the excuse? Why not simply walk in and resign with NO excuses needed? We are still a nation that outlaws slavery and no one right up to POTUS would have slapped her for wanting out.
I don’t claim to have the REAL reason but I do have a really good BS sensor built behind my nose and right behind my eyes. If I hear smell or see it the sensor goes off and this is a time it is ringing loud and clear
As someone who passed on the opportunity to be with the FDA, I don’t blame her one bit. When I was approached it was less than the introduction of the call before I said thanks but I can be of help in better ways then that thanks for the offer
Dr. Dave
Something WAY more to this then simply an underlying “inability to liquidate her assets”
Come on let’s face it anyone can sell a portfolio and or atleast not buy anymore which she seems bound and determined to do even after taking a public job
This one is a deeper runner and she is hoping to dodge the bullet by resigning
As long as this doesn’t cloud the already murky waters of Federal Politics anymore then it currently is then all I can is “Hasta la Vista Baby”
Dr. Dave
Dr.Dave, sir you are very wrong in your comment of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald. She has a clean record all through her years as an OB-GYN. Also she had no problem in her position with Georgia while employed there. How many employees in the office of the CDC has stock in the same company as Dr. Fitzgerald ? I am willing to check them out are you. I doubt it. All this is political because of you people bias.
Marsha Vaughn
Republican.