The Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Erica Schwartz, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, ending a nearly yearlong period without a Senate-confirmed director leading the agency.
Schwartz was confirmed in a 51-44 vote, with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) joining Republicans in support. All other Democrats opposed the nomination.
Despite a contentious confirmation hearing last month during which Schwartz dodged questions about whether she would stand up to political pressure from her prospective boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Schwartz is widely considered a qualified and traditional selection for the role.
Kaine cited that background as well as ongoing outbreaks of measles and cyclosporiasis as reasons to support her.
Schwartz has a long history in federal service, serving as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term and, before that, chief medical officer and director of health, safety and work-life for the U.S. Coast Guard, overseeing its health care system. She got her medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine and was a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist before running the Health Department, has said he’s supportive of Schwartz even though she has endorsed the safety of vaccines and oversaw a federal drive-through testing site program during the Covid-19 pandemic. During her confirmation hearing, she said she thought some vaccine mandates were justified in the congregate settings where service members live.
Some of Kennedy’s most vaccine-skeptical supporters, including Aaron Siri — a vaccine injury lawyer and managing partner of Siri & Glimstad — have come out against her.
The agency she inherits experienced dramatic changes during Trump’s second term. Hundreds of its staff were fired during the Department of Government Efficiency-era push to downsize the federal workforce — though some were hired back — and Kennedy overhauled a key panel that advises the agency on vaccine policy, replacing members with more vaccine-skeptical choices.
CDC staffers endured a shooting at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters last summer and saw their last Senate-confirmed director, Susan Monarez, ousted after she disagreed with Kennedy about vaccines.
And despite recent attempts by Health Department leaders to mend fences, staffers say morale remains low.
As Kaine mentioned, Schwartz will also inherit several high-profile infectious disease outbreak responses, including 37 new measles outbreaks in the U.S. this year; the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record in central Africa; and a record number cases of the food-borne parasite cyclospora in the U.S.
Schwartz still must be sworn in before she can officially assume the role.