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Ofline
She’s well qualified but will need to navigate RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda.
Erica G. Schwartz, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. Credit: Wikipedia | HHS
President Trump on Thursday announced his third nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Dr. Erica Schwartz, a well-qualified former public health official and board-certified physician in preventive medicine, who has publicly supported vaccination and followed evidence-based medicine.
The uncontroversial pick comes amid concern within the administration that the aggressive anti-vaccine agenda from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has no medical, science, or public health background—has become a liability for the party in the lead up to the midterms.
Schwartz was deputy surgeon general in Trump’s first administration. She spent much of her career as a Navy officer, held the role of Chief Medical Officer with the US Coast Guard, and is a retired rear admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has a medical degree from Brown University, a master’s degree in public health, and a law degree from the University of Maryland. During the pandemic, she was involved in the federal rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
On social media, she has championed the use of vaccines as part of preventive health. Earlier this month, she posted a video for National Public Health Week speaking of her time as a military physician. “My job was all about readiness; it was all about public health: prevention, vaccines, early detection. If we get that right, we change lives before illness ever begins,” she said.
Outside public health experts have praised her nomination, highlighting her qualifications. But, they’re also wary of how an evidence-based health official will be able to function amid Kennedy’s anti-vaccine efforts and interference from the many like-minded allies he has installed at the CDC.
“As a well-trained and credentialed physician and former Deputy Surgeon General, Erica Schwartz possesses the medical background and public health knowledge to understand that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must be guided by evidence-based science,” Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association, said in a statement. “She will need to use sound managerial and negotiation skills to navigate the rebuilding of our nation’s public health system.”
Jerome Adams, who served as Trump’s surgeon general in his first administration, posted on social media that Schwartz is a “battle-tested leader with decades of distinguished public service,” and that he was “cautiously optimistic” of her selection. As the leader of the CDC, “she’ll excel,” he said, with the caveat, “if [she’s] allowed to follow the science without political interference.”
There’s an obvious reason for such caution. Trump’s second pick for CDC director, Susan Monarez, was a similarly highly respected, evidence-based health official. But after being confirmed by the Senate, she only lasted 29 days in the job before Kennedy ousted her for refusing to rubber-stamp vaccine policy crafted by his hand-selected panel of vaccine-skeptical advisors.
Trump’s first nominee, Dave Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, didn’t even make it that far. His anti-vaccine views made him a nonstarter in the Senate, and his nomination was dropped.
With Schwartz’s credentials, she will likely not have such problems getting Senate approval. But her ability to avoid Monarez’s fate while staying true to evidence-based public health policy is in doubt.
“We saw what happened with Susan,” Debra Houry, CDC’s former chief medical officer who resigned in protest of Kennedy’s political interference, told Stat News. “She couldn’t make staffing or policy decisions. What has changed? Kennedy hasn’t changed.”
Reporting by The Washington Post noted that amid the search for a new CDC director, some well-qualified candidates sought promises of autonomy to be able to fire and hire staff and to keep science insulated from political influence. Those candidates were not selected, sources told the Post.
Trump announced Schwartz’s nomination in a social media post on Wednesday, calling her “a STAR,” and announced nominations for three other positions at the agency. “These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC,” he wrote.
Kennedy responded with a much more measured message, writing: “I congratulate Dr. Schwartz and the new CDC leadership team. I look forward to working together to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at the CDC so we can return it to its core mission and Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy’s close anti-vaccine ally and former personal lawyer, Aaron Siri, meanwhile, didn’t hold back, saying Schwartz’s leadership at the CDC would “likely be a disaster.”
“Schwartz led nationwide Covid-19 vaccine deployment and her long track record of directly issuing rights-crushing civilian and military vaccine mandates, including mandating injection of smallpox, anthrax, and flu vaccines into US Forces, and disciplining those that refused, reflects she lacks the basic ethics and morals to lead the CDC,” Siri wrote.
“Her prior promotion, let alone mandates, of nearly a dozen different vaccines leave little hope she will objectively oversee CDC’s vaccine program…” he concluded.
Erica G. Schwartz, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. Credit: Wikipedia | HHS
President Trump on Thursday announced his third nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Dr. Erica Schwartz, a well-qualified former public health official and board-certified physician in preventive medicine, who has publicly supported vaccination and followed evidence-based medicine.
The uncontroversial pick comes amid concern within the administration that the aggressive anti-vaccine agenda from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has no medical, science, or public health background—has become a liability for the party in the lead up to the midterms.
Schwartz was deputy surgeon general in Trump’s first administration. She spent much of her career as a Navy officer, held the role of Chief Medical Officer with the US Coast Guard, and is a retired rear admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has a medical degree from Brown University, a master’s degree in public health, and a law degree from the University of Maryland. During the pandemic, she was involved in the federal rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
On social media, she has championed the use of vaccines as part of preventive health. Earlier this month, she posted a video for National Public Health Week speaking of her time as a military physician. “My job was all about readiness; it was all about public health: prevention, vaccines, early detection. If we get that right, we change lives before illness ever begins,” she said.
Caution
Outside public health experts have praised her nomination, highlighting her qualifications. But, they’re also wary of how an evidence-based health official will be able to function amid Kennedy’s anti-vaccine efforts and interference from the many like-minded allies he has installed at the CDC.
“As a well-trained and credentialed physician and former Deputy Surgeon General, Erica Schwartz possesses the medical background and public health knowledge to understand that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must be guided by evidence-based science,” Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association, said in a statement. “She will need to use sound managerial and negotiation skills to navigate the rebuilding of our nation’s public health system.”
Jerome Adams, who served as Trump’s surgeon general in his first administration, posted on social media that Schwartz is a “battle-tested leader with decades of distinguished public service,” and that he was “cautiously optimistic” of her selection. As the leader of the CDC, “she’ll excel,” he said, with the caveat, “if [she’s] allowed to follow the science without political interference.”
There’s an obvious reason for such caution. Trump’s second pick for CDC director, Susan Monarez, was a similarly highly respected, evidence-based health official. But after being confirmed by the Senate, she only lasted 29 days in the job before Kennedy ousted her for refusing to rubber-stamp vaccine policy crafted by his hand-selected panel of vaccine-skeptical advisors.
Trump’s first nominee, Dave Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, didn’t even make it that far. His anti-vaccine views made him a nonstarter in the Senate, and his nomination was dropped.
With Schwartz’s credentials, she will likely not have such problems getting Senate approval. But her ability to avoid Monarez’s fate while staying true to evidence-based public health policy is in doubt.
“We saw what happened with Susan,” Debra Houry, CDC’s former chief medical officer who resigned in protest of Kennedy’s political interference, told Stat News. “She couldn’t make staffing or policy decisions. What has changed? Kennedy hasn’t changed.”
“A disaster”
Reporting by The Washington Post noted that amid the search for a new CDC director, some well-qualified candidates sought promises of autonomy to be able to fire and hire staff and to keep science insulated from political influence. Those candidates were not selected, sources told the Post.
Trump announced Schwartz’s nomination in a social media post on Wednesday, calling her “a STAR,” and announced nominations for three other positions at the agency. “These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC,” he wrote.
Kennedy responded with a much more measured message, writing: “I congratulate Dr. Schwartz and the new CDC leadership team. I look forward to working together to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at the CDC so we can return it to its core mission and Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy’s close anti-vaccine ally and former personal lawyer, Aaron Siri, meanwhile, didn’t hold back, saying Schwartz’s leadership at the CDC would “likely be a disaster.”
“Schwartz led nationwide Covid-19 vaccine deployment and her long track record of directly issuing rights-crushing civilian and military vaccine mandates, including mandating injection of smallpox, anthrax, and flu vaccines into US Forces, and disciplining those that refused, reflects she lacks the basic ethics and morals to lead the CDC,” Siri wrote.
“Her prior promotion, let alone mandates, of nearly a dozen different vaccines leave little hope she will objectively oversee CDC’s vaccine program…” he concluded.