The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brenda Fitzgerald, “bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use,” reported Politico. “Critics say her trading behavior broke with ethical norms for public health officials and was, at best, sloppy.”
Fitzgerald, a medical doctor, was Georgia public health commissioner for six years before she was appointed to run the CDC, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. She was also president of an organization that represents public health agencies, and was well connected to Republican leaders when she was appointed last summer.
The stock in Japan Tobacco, which has a U.S. subsidiary, was “one of about a dozen new investments” that Fitzgerald made after arriving at the CDC, said Politico. “Fitzgerald has since come under congressional scrutiny for slow-walking divestment from older holdings that government officials said posed potential conflicts of interest.” An HHS spokesman who confirmed the purchases by Fitzgerald said they had been handled by a financial manager and had been subsequently sold, said Politico. In 2017, when she was the Georgia health commissioner, Fitzgerald listed tobacco cessation as one of her priorities. Before joining the CDC, she owned stock in five tobacco companies, said the news outlet.