CDC deputy director/CMO resigns after 4 months

Jennifer Shuford, CDC's deputy director and CMO, is resigning after just four months in the position, CDC Director Erica Schwartz announced Tuesday.

"I am leaving to spend more time with my family," Shuford said in a statement. "I am so thankful to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to help lead CDC. It has been an amazing experience, and I will be forever grateful for it."

According to two people familiar with her departure who spoke to the Washington Post, Shuford disagreed with the Trump administration's approach to vaccine policy and that was a factor in her decision to resign.

Shuford is an infectious disease physician who previously served as health commissioner of Texas and was hired in April as part of a new four-person leadership team brought on to restore confidence in the agency, administration officials said at the time.

Shuford's last day at CDC will be Nov. 12, according to an administration official. Satish Pillai, a career CDC official, will serve as the agency's acting deputy director and CMO while CDC looks for a replacement, the official added.

(Diamond/Sun, Washington Post, 10/27; Mandavilli, New York Times, 10/27)

Top advisor to RFK Jr. resigns amid frustrations around stalled MAHA agenda

Calley Means, a leader of the MAHA movement and a top advisor to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., resigned from his position on Thursday, with sources telling the New York Times Means had grown frustrated with stalled progress in implementing the MAHA agenda.

Specifically, Means started to feel stymied in his attempts to deliver on promises to improve the food supply by doing things like defining ultra-processed foods, the source told the Times.

Vani Hari, a leader in the MAHA movement and a healthy eating influencer, said a turning point for Means came when President Donald Trump issued an executive order supporting the increased production of glyphosate, an herbicide that many within the MAHA movement are focused on eliminating.

"It became very clear in the last few months that no progress was getting made," Hari said. "And when you're spinning around in circles, you can only take so much."

In a statement, Means didn't state why he was leaving but said that he "leaves with tremendous respect" for Trump and Kennedy.

"The past two years have seen historic policy and cultural change to confront the chronic disease crisis and healthcare incentives that profit from us being sick," Means said. "This movement is in the first inning and just getting started."

(Hussein/Perrone, Associated Press, 10/22; Jewett, New York Times, 10/22)

CMS announces $275M program to attract nurses to SNFs

CMS on Friday announced a $275 million program aimed at attracting nurses to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in rural and urban areas hit by staffing shortages.

The Nurses for Nursing Homes initiative will offer nursing students and licensed nurses up to $40,000 in student loan repayments and/or a $10,000 stipend in exchange for a three-year commitment to work at SNFs in staffing deserts, CMS said in a release.

The program will be funded through civil monetary penalties CMS and states have collected from nursing homes and is expected to support over 4,000 nurses across the United States. CMS has committed $100 million to the program while states have committed an additional $175 million.

CDC ignored request to validate new measles test from states facing outbreaks

Amid measles outbreaks this past spring, health officials in California and Washington asked CDC to validate a test that can diagnose 500 measles cases in eight hours. The states received no response for two months, hearing back only after writing to CDC Director Erica Schwartz, who took office in August.

In the letter, which was obtained by the New York Times, officials from the West Coast Health Alliance — which include California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii — recounted the experience to Schwartz. In response to the states' request, CDC told them the agency had "other competing priorities" and couldn't dedicate time to making a high-volume measles test available to state labs.

The officials have urged CDC to develop and distribute protocols for high-volume tests for measles and other diseases, arguing they would help public health labs nationwide be ready for large outbreaks.

"The availability and speed of diagnostic testing can dramatically mitigate the early stages of an outbreak of infectious disease," they wrote.

Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for HHS, said in a statement that CDC "is ensuring state and local health departments have the support needed to strengthen measles detection and outbreak response. Under Dr. Schwartz's leadership, the agency is prioritizing emerging technologies to best assist our partners in responding more quickly and effectively."

(Mandavilli, New York Times, 10/21)