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Robert Redfield, an HIV/AIDS expert at the University of Maryland Medical Center, is being vetted by the Trump administration to run the CDC, five individuals with knowledge of the situation tell POLITICO. Redfield emerged this week as the favored choice to replace former CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, who resigned in late January after POLITICO reported she had traded tobacco, drug and food stocks while heading the public health agency. (Diamond, 3/16)

A formal announcement about the candidate, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, could come as early as Tuesday, once the vetting has been finished, said an administration official with knowledge of the appointment, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The review process is likely to be thorough. President Trump’s first C.D.C. director, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in January after about six months amid reports that she held investments in tobacco and health care companies that posed potential conflicts of interest. (Kaplan, 3/17)

The CDC director’s job has been vacant since Jan. 31, when former Georgia public health commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald resigned after serving only half a year. She was unable to divest from “complex financial interests” in a “definitive time period,” according to a statement from the Health and Human Services Department. Fitzgerald had also purchased shares in a tobacco company shortly after becoming CDC director. HHS Secretary Alex Azar accepted her resignation two days after he was sworn in. (Sun, 3/16)

Redfield co-founded the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and served on former President George W. Bush’s advisory council on HIV/AIDS. (Sanchez, 3/17)