Overview
- Jerome Adams, speaking Sunday on Face the Nation, called Schwartz a “home run” pick and said she now faces pressure to resist ideology inside HHS as she seeks Senate confirmation.
- Schwartz is a physician with an MPH and a law degree who served as a Coast Guard rear admiral and as Adams’ deputy surgeon general.
- The CDC has lacked a stable leader since Susan Monarez was ousted weeks into her term after clashes with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with NIH director Jay Bhattacharya now overseeing the agency on an interim basis.
- Measles cases have topped 1,700 in the first four months of 2026, and Kennedy testified that the MMR shot is safe for most people and may have prevented a child’s death, even as he rejects large studies that find no link between prenatal Tylenol and autism.
- Adams alleged the acting CDC chief withheld a report that found COVID-19 vaccines cut winter ER visits, a transparency fight likely to shape questions at Schwartz’s confirmation hearing.