The Senate confirmed this Wednesday Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making her the first person to permanently hold the position at the head of the public health agency in approximately a year.
Schwartz was Undersecretary of Public Health during Donald Trump’s first term. Prior to that, she served as a Navy medic and Coast Guard medical director.
The CDC had been led by acting officials since August 2025, when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Susan Monarez just 29 days after taking office.
Schwartz replaces Jay Bhattacharya, who led the agency since February while also heading the National Institutes of Health. Federal law required the Trump Administration to nominate a permanent director in March, but Schwartz’s nomination was submitted a month after the deadline.
As CDC director, Schwartz will be in charge of overseeing the nation’s public health response, including approving vaccine recommendations and coordinating to contain disease outbreaks.
Schwartz takes office amid a measles crisis — the United States has its highest number of cases in 35 years — and a growing outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection linked to lettuce. iceberg. In addition, he will have to confront rising distrust of vaccines, a phenomenon that some experts attribute, in part, to the rhetoric and policies promoted by Kennedy.
Although Schwartz was considered a conventional candidate to lead the CDC, some public health specialists argued that during a Senate hearing last month she did not distance herself sufficiently from some of Kennedy’s most controversial positions. In that appearance he affirmed that vaccines are safe and effective, but said he was unaware of some of the changes in vaccination policies promoted by Kennedy and avoided answering whether he supported them.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and a doctor by training, accused Schwartz during the hearing of evading his questions about whether she would be willing to confront Kennedy if he tried to discredit scientific evidence.
“We need a CDC director who will really stand up to the crazy and absurd things that undermine confidence in vaccination,” Cassidy said.
The senator announced last month that he would support Schwartz’s nomination after speaking with her again and consulting with people “who worked alongside her and know her well.”
“I am convinced that he knows what he is doing and that he will stand up to those who do not do it,” he said during a HELP committee meeting on July 23.
