WASHINGTON — Erica Schwartz was confirmed Wednesday as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making her the second permanent leader of the agency since the second Trump administration took office.
Her confirmation, approved by the Senate in a 51-44 vote, also ends a nearly year-long vacancy for the CDC’s top job after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Schwartz’s predecessor last year.
Schwartz will join the agency as it deals with a number of ongoing disease outbreaks, including measles and a foodborne parasite in the U.S. and Ebola in parts of Africa. Schwartz, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, was deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration. During that time, she was responsible for standing up Covid-19 public testing drive-throughs and tents.
The public health world will also be watching to see how Schwartz handles Kennedy’s aggressive vaccine policy agenda.
Schwartz’s predecessor, Susan Monarez, was fired just a month into her job last August after she said Kennedy pressured her to preemptively sign-off on vaccine policy changes. In the absence of a CDC director, the Department of Health and Human Services has moved to unilaterally reduce the number of recommended pediatric vaccines, including delaying the hepatitis B birth dose. Kennedy has also modified a CDC webpage that reversed the agency’s stance that vaccines do not cause autism, though Senate health committee leader Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has said that HHS has agreed to modify the page again.
