Raymond Aloysius Vonderlehr (25 Apr 1897 – 28 Jan 1973) was the director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
from 1947 to 1951. He was also the onsite director on the
Tuskegee Experiment from its start until 1943. During his time as director, he deceitfully insinuated that diagnostic and painful lumbar punctures were necessary treatment. He also directed plans to continue the experiment until each subject could be "brought to autopsy" by giving the subjects non-effective treatments such as aspirin so that they would continue to believe the purpose of the study was to find a cure for syphilis.
He was also a mentor to Dr.
John R. Heller Jr.
Dr. John Roderick 'Rod' Heller (born February 27, 1905, Fair Play, S.C., died May 4, 1989, Bethesda, Md., age 84), was the head in 1943–1948 of what was then called the "Venereal Disease" section of the United States Public Health Service (PHS ...
who would take over his duties at the Tuskegee Experiment after he left.
References
Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Truman administration personnel
People from Richmond, Virginia
University of Virginia School of Medicine alumni
Hampden–Sydney College alumni
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