Overview
- Senate HELP committee members are holding a confirmation hearing for Erica Schwartz as the lead step toward installing a permanent CDC director.
- The agency has lacked a long-term, Senate-confirmed director for nearly all of the administration's second term after repeated nominations, a brief confirmation of Susan Monarez and her quick firing.
- Schwartz is a board-certified preventive medicine physician with a public record that does not oppose vaccines and has served as a deputy surgeon general, making her a conventional choice for the role.
- The committee is also reviewing Sean Kaufman's nomination for a top preparedness post, which has drawn scrutiny for past comments questioning infant hepatitis B vaccination and citing a disproven vaccine-autism link.
- If confirmed, Schwartz would take charge while the CDC is confronting a major measles resurgence, a large Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, and falling public confidence in routine childhood immunizations, which will test the agency's ability to mount clear, evidence-based responses.