Senate confirms Erica Schwartz, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., as CDC director

The Senate voted 51-44 on Aug. 5 to confirm Erica Schwartz, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), giving the agency its first Senate-confirmed leader in nearly a year. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), was again the lone Democrat to back her, as he was when the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced her nomination on July 30.

For primary care practices, the consequence runs through the immunization schedule. The CDC director accepts or rejects recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and those recommendations determine which vaccines commercial plans must cover without cost sharing and what is available through the Vaccines for Children program.

With no confirmed director in place, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rewrote the childhood schedule in January to recommend fewer universal shots, a change a federal judge blocked in March. Schwartz now holds a sign-off that sat vacant while the schedule was contested elsewhere.

What she committed to, and what she didn't

Schwartz, 54, becomes the 22nd CDC director and the first Black woman to hold the job. She served as deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration and as chief medical officer of the U.S. Coast Guard, and is a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

President Donald Trump nominated her in April, a month past the deadline federal law set for naming a permanent director.

At her July 15 hearing she affirmed the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines, the mRNA platform and newborn vitamin K, and said she would “never betray the science.”

What she would not say was what she would do if Kennedy directed otherwise, telling senators she did not expect the administration to ask her to make decisions that would harm children.

Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, M.D., (R-Louisiana) accused her of evading the question, then reversed a week later after HHS revised the CDC's vaccines and autism webpage. Schwartz also aligned herself with the department's broader health policy agenda, telling the committee, "I am all in on the Make America Healthy Again agenda."

The National Public Health Coalition, an advocacy group of former CDC employees, opposed her nomination on the strength of that performance, saying her stated commitments were too often "incomplete, vague, or missing."

An HHS spokesperson dismissed the criticism as political theater, saying Schwartz declined only to speculate on decisions outside the scope of her nomination.

Susan Monarez, Ph.D., her predecessor, was confirmed a year ago and fired 29 days later after refusing to preemptively approve recommendations from Kennedy's reconstituted vaccine panel.

The agency she inherits

Schwartz takes over from Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., who has run the CDC on an acting basis since February while continuing to direct the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The agency has shed thousands of employees since early 2025.

The nation currently faces three major active outbreaks. The CDC counted 2,371 confirmed measles cases as of July 30, past the 2,289 reported for all of 2025 and the highest annual total since 1991. The Pan American Health Organization is expected to review U.S. transmission data later this year to decide whether the country keeps the measles elimination status it has held since 2000.

The cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to recalled Taylor Farms de Mexico iceberg lettuce has become the largest on record in the United States. The CDC has logged 10,468 laboratory-confirmed domestically acquired cases, 517 hospitalizations and two deaths since May 1, with 47 states reporting, and says it is aware of more than 12,255 additional cases that are not yet laboratory-confirmed.

Federal investigators are adding six states to the lettuce-linked outbreak, widening it to 15, the Washington Post reported Aug. 4, citing people familiar with the investigation. Michigan, the hardest-hit state, has reported more than 12,000 cases and both of the outbreak's deaths. The CDC estimates a six-week lag between illness onset and case reporting, so its national counts trail state figures.

The CDC has also elevated its response to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to its highest level. Bhattacharya told staff in July that the response would require substantial staffing and likely last several months.

Sean Kaufman, M.P.H., advanced alongside Schwartz on a party-line committee vote and sits on the Senate executive calendar awaiting a floor vote as assistant secretary for preparedness and response.