CDC director resigns over investments

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned Wednesday over financial conflicts of interest involving her investments in health care businesses.

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald’s complex financial investments presented conflicts that made it difficult to do her job, according to a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC. In an ethics agreement filed in September, Fitzgerald had said that legal and contractual restrictions prevented her from selling the two investments.

The new HHS head, Alex Azar, who took office Monday, accepted her resignation Wednesday after discussing the investments with her and their effect on her work.

Her investments were “limiting her ability to complete all of her duties as CDC director,” HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd said in the statement.