CDC deputy director to exit after six months; a third of young adults ask AI about drug use; activity may temper genetic depression risk — Morning Medical Update

CDC deputy director to exit after six months

Jennifer Shuford, M.D., M.P.H., is expected to leave after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Jennifer Shuford, M.D., M.P.H., deputy director and chief medical officer of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is expected to leave the agency after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Reuters reported, citing The Washington Post.

Shuford, an infectious disease physician and former Texas health commissioner, was hired in April as part of a four-person CDC leadership team.

"I am leaving to spend more time with my family," Shuford told the Post. The newspaper cited one person who attributed the departure to a family health issue and another who said she had disagreed with the administration's approach to vaccine policy. The CDC and the White House did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Her exit follows President Donald Trump's announcement of plans to require vaccine makers to split certain childhood shots into five separate doses, according to Reuters.

It is the second departure from a top CDC deputy post this year. Ralph Abraham, M.D., stepped down as principal deputy director in February, citing family obligations.

A third of young adults ask AI about drug use

Most wanted to know about risks, and many rated the chatbots as trustworthy.

About a third of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 have used ChatGPT or other generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to look up information on alcohol and drugs, according to a research letter published in JMIR Formative Research.

Rutgers University researchers surveyed 995 young adults online in April 2026. Of those, 32.3% reported substance-related AI use, compared with 57.5% who had searched Google on the topic.

Among AI users, 92.8% sought information on risks and consequences, and nearly half did so at least monthly. Black respondents had about 2.5 times the adjusted odds of white respondents of using AI this way, and male respondents about twice the odds of female respondents.

"Using these tools can lead to misinformed or otherwise risky substance-use behavior among young people," lead author Mireia Triguero Roura, Ph.D., said in a news release.

The authors noted the online sample could overrepresent people already familiar with AI, and the survey questions were newly adapted and had not been validated.

Activity may temper genetic depression risk

The pattern showed up in symptom severity, not in who was diagnosed.

Physically active adults with high genetic risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) had less severe symptoms recorded in their electronic health records than less active adults with similar risk, according to a study in Nature Mental Health.

Researchers analyzed 23,517 participants in the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program, pairing polygenic risk scores with Fitbit data on daily steps and minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity collected over an average of 582 days.

Higher genetic risk was tied to a greater likelihood of an MDD diagnosis and more activity to a lower likelihood, but activity did not weaken the genetic link to the diagnosis itself.

"With health, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach," corresponding author Denver Brown, an assistant professor in Kansas State University's School of Health Sciences, said in a news release.

The findings are observational and cannot show that exercise caused the difference. Participants averaged about 56 years old, and 67% were female.