Before her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Trump’s third nominee in less than two years to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appeared all but certain to be approved by the Senate health committee, a crucial step in her confirmation process.
Dr. Schwartz, a deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration, has publicly supported childhood vaccines, and has been viewed as a highly qualified, mainstream choice.
Her credentials may yet win her the votes she needs for confirmation, but her hearing was dominated by sharply worded questions about her willingness and ability to push back against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policies, including his attempts to rescind recommendations for childhood vaccines.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and a physician, was scathing in his criticisms of Mr. Kennedy’s policies, and made it clear he would not tolerate vaccine skepticism from Dr. Schwartz.
“We need a C.D.C. director that will actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization,” he said, adding that it was “evil” to promote misinformation about vaccines.
“Are you that person?” he asked Dr. Schwartz.
Mr. Cassidy’s questions were particularly striking considering he cast the deciding committee vote to confirm Mr. Kennedy as health secretary last year.
Dr. Schwartz repeatedly said she did not think Mr. Kennedy or Mr. Trump would ask her to do anything to hurt public health or break the law.
Her responses did not satisfy Democratic senators or Mr. Cassidy.
“There are multiple examples of the president actively instructing people to break the law over and over again,” said Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, adding that it was “not a satisfactory response to say he would never do that.”
Dr. Schwartz offered repeated assurances that she believed in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, including in the mRNA technology used in Covid vaccines. She expressed unequivocal support of shots of vitamin K given to newborns at birth to prevent internal bleeding, which has increasingly become a focus in vaccine hesitancy.
“I will never betray the science,” she declared in her opening statement, a sentiment she echoed throughout the hearing. She later referred to her oath as a physician to do no harm, saying: “If I’m confirmed as a C.D.C. director, the nation’s health and well-being will take primacy, and I will never compromise on that.”
She said that she accepted the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, but stopped short of agreeing to take down wording on the C.D.C. website, introduced by Mr. Kennedy, that says the issue remains unresolved.
“We owe it to the American people to figure out why” one in 30 children now has autism, she said.
Mr. Kennedy has falsely called Covid vaccines the deadliest ever produced, and canceled nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts. Asked whether she supported his actions, Dr. Schwartz said she had been unaware of the cuts. She also said she did not know about cuts made by the Trump administration to smoking cessation and food safety programs, when she was pressed about those policies.
Her responses left some public health experts unimpressed, including some who had been encouraged by her nomination.
“I heard less clearly stated, unequivocal commitments to following evidence-based science than we need in people leading America’s premier health offices,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the chief executive of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
If confirmed, Dr. Schwartz, a retired rear admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, would lead an agency that has been in the cross hairs of Mr. Kennedy’s efforts to upend longstanding federal guidance on vaccines.
During his tenure, the agency has lost about a third of its staff to layoffs and resignations, including scientists who had worked there for decades. It has also endured a shooting at its headquarters in Atlanta, and is grappling with a series of high-profile infectious disease outbreaks.
In a series of congressional hearings in April, Mr. Kennedy told lawmakers that he supported Dr. Schwartz’s nomination, but he refused to say if he would accept all of her decisions on vaccines, declaring, “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment.”
Susan Monarez, the C.D.C.’s previous permanent director, was confirmed by the Senate a year ago. But about a month later, Mr. Kennedy fired her over her refusal to accept the recommendations of his handpicked panel of vaccine advisers. (Dr. Schwartz said at the hearing that she was unaware of Mr. Kennedy’s interference in vaccine decisions.)
“I have reservations about her statements that she did not think that R.F.K. would interfere with C.D.C. processes, as he has clearly done that in the past and it was these actions that led to the unjust dismissal of the prior C.D.C. director,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Though some of Dr. Schwartz’s statements on vaccines were at odds with Mr. Kennedy’s views, she expressed strong support for other ideas central to his agenda, including the importance of a healthy diet and exercise in combating chronic diseases.
“I am all in on the Make America Healthy Again agenda,” she said on Wednesday.
She said that she also agreed with Mr. Kennedy’s statements that the C.D.C. should focus primarily on infectious diseases. He has said he plans to move the C.D.C.’s work on chronic diseases to a new agency called the Administration for a Healthy America, but the status of that new organization is unclear.
“I think over time, the C.D.C. has had some mission creep, and it’s trying to be all things to all people,” Dr. Schwartz said. “And in a resource-constrained environment, $40 trillion, nearly $40 trillion in debt, we need to refocus and figure out what should the C.D.C. be.”
With the midterm elections looming, the White House has sought to refocus Mr. Kennedy on less controversial topics, such as healthy eating.
The Senate health committee also questioned Sean Kaufman, the Trump administration’s nominee for assistant secretary for preparedness and response, a role that includes oversight of emergency measures during public health crises.
Mr. Kaufman has argued against mandates for Covid vaccines and against the use of the hepatitis B vaccine in newborns, putting him at direct odds with Mr. Cassidy, who has championed the shot.
“Why would you repeat those damn lies?” Mr. Cassidy asked Mr. Kaufman, raising his voice.
Mr. Kaufman seemed to distance himself from those views at the hearing, saying, “I believe in vaccines. I believe in the dose of hepatitis B.”
In an ethics agreement filed with the Senate, Dr. Schwartz agreed to resign from a position at the insurance giant UnitedHealth Group if she is confirmed, and to step down from the boards of Butterfly Network, a medical device manufacturer, and Aveanna Healthcare Holdings, a home care provider.
According to her financial disclosures, she earned about $850,000 in salary and bonuses from UnitedHealth, garnered an additional $450,000 in company stock awards, and has up to $5 million in awards that will vest over time. She has a minimum net worth of about $4.6 million.
The post Trump’s Latest C.D.C. Nominee Vows Not to ‘Betray the Science’ appeared first on New York Times.
