Trump nominates Brown Med School graduate Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general, to head CDC
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| Wikimedia Commons / Mike Olliver |
Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, former Coast Guard officer, is Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Trump announced late this afternoon.
“Erica graduated from Brown University for College and Medical School, and served a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine in the United States Military, the Greatest and Most Powerful Force in the World, and then served as my Deputy Surgeon General during my First Term,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.
Trump
also appointed Sean Slovenski as the CDC deputy director and chief operating
officer, Jennifer Shuford, MD, MPH, as the CDC deputy director and chief
medical officer, and Sara Brenner, MD, MPH, as senior counselor for public
health to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the
knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE
at the CDC,” Trump said.
Schwartz is set to inherit a chaotic and hollowed CDC, one
that has seen public firings, the resurgence of measles across the nation, and
legally disputed changes to routine vaccine recommendations. Polling also
shows that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine “Make America Healthy Again” agenda isn’t
sitting well with voters and may be a liability in the midterm elections for
Republicans.
The CDC is an agency within HHS.
Schwartz developed Coast Guard pandemic policy
Schwartz spent 24 years in
the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as a rear admiral in
the Coast Guard before serving as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first
term. According to CNN, Schwartz wrote Coast Guard policy on pandemic influenza
and other viral disease outbreaks.
Schwartz will go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee for a confirmation hearing at an unknown date. She is
Trump’s third pick for the job. Currently Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, the
director of the National Institutes of Health is also acting as head of the
CDC, after Susan Monarez, PhD, was ousted last summer less than a month into
her stint as director.
Monarez said she fell out of favor with Kennedy after she
refused to kowtow to some of his anti-vaccine policy and changes.
“I could not pre-approve recommendations without
reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis to fire scientific experts,” Monarez
told lawmakers last September. “Even under pressure, I could not
replace evidence with ideology or compromise my integrity.”
Kennedy celebrated Trump’s pick. “Thank you, President
Trump, for nominating Dr. Erica Schwartz to serve as CDC Director,” he wrote on X. “I look forward
to working together to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity
at the CDC.”
