Louisiana’s surgeon general and former House member Ralph Abraham will assume the No. 2 position at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

Abraham, an outspoken critic of mass vaccination and strong supporter of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA agenda, will be CDC’s principal deputy director. The appointment was not announced by the agency.

As the state’s surgeon general, Abraham downplayed seasonal vaccination and has sparred with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a fellow Louisianan, over Cassidy’s pro-vaccine stances.

President Donald Trump has not nominated a new director to lead the agency, charged with public health and preventing the spread of communicable diseases, after Susan Monarez was fired as director in August.

Abraham’s appointment comes as the agency has been criticized over Monarez’s exit and many other moves, including casting doubt on claims that vaccines do not cause autism. The agency’s next vaccine advisory committee meeting, in which recommendations on the childhood immunization schedule are on the agenda, is next week.

Abraham, a veterinarian turned physician, represented Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District from 2015 to 2021. As the state’s surgeon general starting last year, he has amplified skepticism of vaccines and in particular the ones for COVID-19. He testified in support of a state bill to make ivermectin more accessible as a COVID-19 treatment, though it has not been proved to be effective. And earlier this year, he wrote in a memo that the state would no longer promote vaccination.

Abraham also told media outlets he opposes mass flu vaccine campaigns as they limit “informed consent.”

“The MAHA movement is ready and willing to transform health care in this country. If we don’t use this as an opportunity to make Louisiana healthy again, then we will lose another generation to poor health,” Abraham said in April in an op-ed for State Affairs.

The former lawmaker has had some harsh words for Cassidy, whose relationship with Kennedy has become rockier in recent months.

In September, Abraham shot back at Cassidy’s suggestion that there should be a statewide prescription for COVID-19 shots, telling the senator to “stay in his own lane.”