After reportedly refusing to resign, Vivek Murthy, MD, is out of his Surgeon General post at the Trump administration’s request and Deputy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams stepped in as acting Surgeon General, according to HHS.
Prior to her role as deputy, Trent-Adams was chief nurse officer of the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps, worked in the HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, served as a nurse officer in the U.S. Army and was a university research nurse.
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Murthy was appointed Surgeon General in 2014 and faced the ongoing opioid and prescription painkiller problem, derided gun violence as a public health issue, cautioned about e-cigarettes, and worked with the Commissioned Corps on Ebola, Zika, and the Flint water crisis.
“As my colleague Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams takes over as Acting Surgeon General, know that our nation is in capable and compassionate hands,” Murthy wrote in a Facebook post Friday night.
Murthy will continue working with the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
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