US CDC appoints Indian-origin Nirav Shah as second-in-command

Nirav D Shah, an Indian-origin epidemiologist, has been appointed Principal Deputy Director at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making him second-in-command at national public health agency.

Shah, who is in his mid-forties, is currently Director of Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Shah will assume new role, second in leership under US CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, in March.

His appointment as Principal Deputy Director comes as part of a planned, broer overhaul of that agency announced by US CDC Director in August of last year.

Shah previously served as president of Association of State and Territorial Health Officials between March 2021 and September 2022, Politico newspaper reported.

Maine Governor Janet Mills in a statement said: "I take comfort, as Maine people should, in knowing that U.S. CDC – and American people at large – will soon become beneficiaries of his leership. Dr. Shah, on behalf of people of Maine, thank you from bottom of my heart.” Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew appointed Director Shah to his current role as he of Maine CDC in June of 2019, with mission of rebuilding agency and State’s public health infrastructure.

“Since his arrival in Maine before pandemic, and every day throughout it, Dr. Shah has been a trusted visor to me and an extraordinary leer of Maine CDC. But even more than that, he was a trusted visor and a leer to people of Maine during one of greatest public health crises of our time,” said Governor Mills.

“I strongly believe that Maine’s nation-leing success in confronting pandemic is due in large part to Dr. Shah’s leership, and re is no doubt in my mind that he saved lives of many Maine people," Mills ded.

Shah said he was s to leave Maine CDC.

“I’m thankful for opportunity that Governor Mills and Commissioner (Jeanne) Lambrew provided me to serve people of Maine," he said.

"In my new role, I will be honoured to serve not just Maine, but entire nation and carry forward good work that we have done here. As I prepare for this next step, I thank people of Maine for taking care of me, as I’ve always asked m to take care of each or," he ded.