Dr. Erica Schwartz, a Navy officer and a retired rear admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via The New York Times
Dr. Erica Schwartz, a Navy officer and a retired rear admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via The New York Times
President Donald Trump has selected Dr. Erica Schwartz, a physician and vaccine supporter, as his nominee to become the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the clearest signal yet that the White House is veering away from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s vaccine skepticism in the lead up to the midterm elections.
Trump announced the nomination in a social media post Thursday.
If the Senate confirms her, as is required by law, Schwartz would be the agency\u2019s fourth leader in just over a year. She would face the formidable task of managing CDC employees who have survived widespread layoffs, a shooting at the agency\u2019s headquarters in Atlanta and plummeting public trust. Schwartz did not respond to requests for comment.
Schwartz, who holds degrees in biomedical engineering, medicine, public health and law, served as a deputy surgeon general during Trump\u2019s first term. She is viewed as a highly qualified, traditional choice for the agency\u2019s director. In social media posts, she has praised vaccines as a cornerstone of prevention, but has also extolled the virtues of a healthy diet and exercise, ideas aligned with Kennedy\u2019s focus on chronic diseases.
In a social media post, Kennedy said he looked forward to working with Schwartz \u201cto restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at the @CDCgov so we can return it to its core mission and Make America Healthy Again.\u201d
In vetting candidates for the position, the administration faced the difficult task of finding someone who could support Kennedy\u2019s Make America Healthy Again agenda while resisting his unpopular policies on vaccines and winning Senate confirmation.
Some public health experts welcomed Schwartz\u2019s credentials and experience as a close fit for the CDC\u2019s core mission of public health.
\u201cHealth policy is political, but health itself should never be partisan,\u201d said Dr. Anne Zink, a former president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials who served as Alaska\u2019s chief medical officer until 2024.
\u201cTo rebuild the trustworthiness of the CDC, the country needs leaders grounded in service, science and the public,\u201d Zink said.
But some close allies of Kennedy were incensed by the appointment, noting that Schwartz had helped to enforce vaccine mandates.
\u201cSince she can\u2019t even respect the right to and need for informed consent, there is little hope that she will respect the rights and needs of the vaccine injured,\u201d Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has often joined Kennedy in lawsuits over vaccine safety, said in a text message.
\u201cThe explosion in childhood chronic disease over the last 40 years, coinciding with the explosion of the vaccine schedule, is unlikely to be addressed by someone who insists on mandating these products in violation of the right to informed consent,\u201d he added.
Trump also announced Sean Slovenski, an executive in the health care industry, as the CDC\u2019s deputy director and chief operating officer; Dr. Jennifer Shuford, health commissioner for Texas, as the agency\u2019s deputy director and chief medical officer; and Dr. Sara Brenner, who briefly served as the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s acting commissioner, as a senior counselor to Kennedy.
The new team members replace political appointees currently at the agency who are more closely allied with Kennedy\u2019s vaccine skepticism.
Shuford, an infectious disease physician, previously served as a medical officer and state epidemiologist for Texas. She \u201chas always struck me as calm, practical and deeply focused on data and people over rhetoric,\u201d said Zink, who has worked with Shuford for years. \u201cThose are exactly the qualities CDC leadership needs right now.\u201d
During her time at the FDA, Brenner was one of the authors of a memo saying there was \u201cno clear evidence\u201d that the benefits of the vaccines for children younger than 18 outweighed the risk of harm. Still, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, an ear, nose and throat doctor who has campaigned for pulling COVID vaccines from the market, said that she was troubled by Brenner\u2019s selection because she had not spoken up about vaccine safety during the pandemic.
\u201cShe stayed silent about those concerns,\u201d Bowden said. \u201cI have a hard time forgiving that.\u201d
Several other candidates for the job of CDC director were also staunch supporters of vaccines. Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippi\u2019s state health officer, withdrew his name from consideration but said the vetting process \u201cwas professional and encouraging\u201d and did not include a litmus test for vaccines.
Kennedy and his allies have sought to reshape the childhood vaccine schedule, rescinding recommendations for several shots and questioning the safety of administering multiple vaccines at once. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Kennedy and his advisers had made \u201carbitrary and capricious\u201d changes to the schedule that were not backed up by scientific evidence.
The Health Department has taken other steps that might allow Kennedy to skirt the judge\u2019s decision and reclaim his revisions to vaccine recommendations.
Schwartz is a retired admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. She is also among very few Black women in leadership roles in the second Trump administration. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, she oversaw the federal government\u2019s program of drive-through testing sites. Schwartz was polite but firm when she disagreed with Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health at the time and her boss, on the program\u2019s specifics.
\u201cShe\u2019s not a wallflower, and she\u2019s not afraid to speak truth to power,\u201d recalled Giroir, a retired four-star admiral and pediatrician.
\u201cShe\u2019s really wicked smart, and is not subject to rumor and conspiracy theories,\u201d he added.
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