Trump chooses vaccine advocate doctor to lead US health agency

The Trump administration chose Erica Schwartz, a doctor and vaccination advocate who was deputy surgeon general in the former president’s first term, to take over as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Trump announced the nomination in a post on social media this Thursday (16).

If approved by the Senate, as the law requires today, Schwartz will be the fourth person to lead the agency in just over a year. She will take on the mission of leading a staff that has experienced mass layoffs, a shooting attack on the CDC headquarters in Atlanta and a severe erosion of public trust. Schwartz did not respond to requests for comment.

With a background in biomedical engineering, medicine, public health and law, Schwartz is a highly qualified and, in some ways, “classic” name for CDC leadership, and has publicly declared support for vaccines and preventive medicine. The pick is the clearest sign yet that the White House is beginning to move away from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism on the eve of the midterm elections.

Trump also announced Sean Slovenski, a senior Walmart executive, as CDC deputy director and chief operating officer; the dr. Texas Health Commissioner Jennifer Shuford as the agency’s deputy director and chief medical officer; and the dr. Sara Brenner, who served as interim head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a senior advisor to Kennedy.

The new team replaces political appointees who were at the CDC and were more aligned with Kennedy’s skepticism regarding vaccines.

Other names considered to head the CDC were also openly pro-vaccine. Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippi’s top health official, dropped out of the race, but said the selection process “was professional and encouraging” and that there was no specific “fidelity test” about vaccines.

Kennedy and his allies have been trying to change the childhood vaccination schedule, overturning recommendations for some doses and questioning the safety of administering several vaccines at the same time. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Kennedy and his team made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the calendar, unsupported by scientific evidence.

The Trump administration did not appeal the decision, but the Department of Health took other measures that could open the way for Kennedy to circumvent the ruling and try, again, to implement his changes to vaccination recommendations.

Schwartz is a Navy officer and retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She is also among the few Black women in leadership roles in the second Trump administration. During the coronavirus pandemic, he was responsible for the federal testing program. She was polite but firm when she disagreed with Dr. Brett Giroir, then assistant secretary of Health and his boss, about the direction of the program.

“She’s not an extra, she’s not afraid to tell the truth to those in power,” recalls Giroir, a retired four-star admiral and pediatrician.

“She is very bright and doesn’t get carried away by rumors or conspiracy theories,” he added. “I am very pleased to see someone with her experience, credentials and dedication to public health and prevention be appointed to this position.”

The CDC spent practically the entire second Trump administration without an effective director — it had a permanent leader for just 29 days. The White House withdrew the first nominee, Dave Weldon, a Republican and former congressman, when it became clear that his anti-vaccine positions would not pass the Senate.

Susan Monarez, the previous permanent director, was approved by the Senate in July. About a month later, Kennedy fired her, following a clash over vaccine policy and her refusal to follow the recommendations of the group of vaccination advisors he had assembled.

After Monarez’s departure, Kennedy appointed Jim O’Neill, a science and biotechnology investor with no experience in public health, as acting director of the CDC. In February, the government reorganized the top leadership of the Department of Health and removed O’Neill from his role.

Subsequently, the White House appointed Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as acting director of the CDC, but the term ended when the administration did not choose a new director within 210 days of Monarez’s departure. Even without the official title, Bhattacharya continues to oversee CDC operations.