President Trump April 16 truthsocial.com announced that Erica Schwartz, M.D., has been nominated for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Schwartz previously served as deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration.

American Hospital Association, 16-4-2026

Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general in Trump’s first administration, spent 24 years in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as a rear admiral in the Coast Guard. She holds a medical degree from Brown University and a law degree from the University of Maryland. US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team had recommended Schwartz to the president along with a slate of other appointees to shore up CDC leadership whom Trump also named Thursday.

Schwartz certainly has a background in the CDC’s areas of expertise. During her time with the Coast Guard, she led disease surveillance and vaccination programs and wrote Coast Guard policy on pandemic influenza and other viral disease outbreaks. She also played a role in the government’s response to natural disasters, including hurricanes and earthquakes.

Still, Schwartz will probably face skepticism from some senators over whether she’s willing to break with Kennedy on controversial issues such as vaccine policy. 

The White House was under a deadline to nominate a permanent director of the CDC after Kennedy abruptly fired the last Senate-confirmed director, Monarez, in August. The federal Vacancies Act says a Senate-confirmed position can be open for only 210 days, and past that deadline, the agency cannot have an acting director. That 210-day mark fell in late March.

If confirmed into the role, Schwartz will inherit an agency looking to strike a balance between its traditional public health mission and a slew of high-profile changes, exits and proposed budget cuts. Monarez was in office for just under a month before she was fired by Kennedy over her refusal to rubber-stamp changes to vaccine policy. After her dismissal, several high-level officials in the agency resigned in protest, leaving a leadership vacuum.

Kennedy dismissed a key panel of 17 experts that advise the CDC on its vaccine decisions, replacing them with his own picks, many of whom have emphasized the risks of vaccines while downplaying their health benefits. A federal judge has reversed some of Kennedy’s efforts, saying he probably violated federal procedures.

Meanwhile, measles cases in the US are at their highest level in three decades, and the nation risks losing its status as a country that has eliminated ongoing transmission of the highly infectious disease within its borders. Other infectious diseases, including whooping cough and mumps, have also surged as vaccination rates have dropped.

Schwartz will go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for confirmation. The HELP committee has not yet voted on another Trump administration nominee, Dr. Casey Means, to serve as surgeon general. Means testified in a February hearing that circled back repeatedly to her views on vaccines, with some Republicans, including committee Chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, expressing concerns about the administration’s changes to vaccine recommendations.

wpsdlocal6.com, 16-4-2026