Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resigned Wednesday, a day after Politico reported Fitzgerald's purchase of tobacco stock after she took the position at the nation's top public health agency.
Such an investment is obviously at odds with the mission of the CDC, considering cigarette smoking will result in the deaths of nearly half a million Americans this year. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
The CDC's slogan is "24/7: Saving Lives, Protecting People." But Fitzgerald bet against that mission just one month into her tenure at the agency, when she purchased stock in a tobacco company -- one of the very ***** she is supposed to be leading the crusade against.
