Erica Schwartz, who was the deputy U.S. surgeon general during the first Trump administration, will serve as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Senate confirmed her nomination Wednesday. When sworn in, Schwartz will be the CDC’s first permanent director in nearly a year, taking over an agency that’s been at the center of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempts to transform the nation’s vaccine policies.
The last permanent director, Susan Monarez, was ousted from the role last August after disagreeing with Kennedy on vaccine policies.
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya has led the CDC in an acting capacity since Monarez’s departure.
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The CDC has been rocked by a series of challenges over the past two years, including the measles and hantavirus outbreaks, personnel and funding cuts, and a shooting at its Atlanta campus last summer that killed one police officer.
The agency has also been targeted by the administration with efforts to roll back its vaccine policy, efforts that drew the ire of Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Cassidy ultimately said he would support Schwartz after the CDC updated a website about vaccines and autism to remove a reference to him.
Schwartz, the former chief medical officer of the Coast Guard, told Cassidy during her confirmation hearing that she would “never betray the science.”
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