President Trump has selected Dr. Erica Schwartz, a physician and vaccine supporter, as his nominee to become the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the clearest signal yet that the White House is veering away from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism in the lead up to the midterm elections.
Mr. Trump announced the nomination in a social media post on Thursday.
If the Senate confirms her, as is required by law, Dr. Schwartz would be the agency’s fourth leader in just over a year. She would face the formidable task of managing C.D.C. employees who have survived widespread layoffs, a shooting at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta and plummeting public trust. Dr. Schwartz did not respond to requests for comment.
Dr. Schwartz, who holds degrees in biomedical engineering, medicine, public health and law, served as a deputy surgeon general during President Trump’s first term. She is viewed as a highly qualified, traditional choice for the agency’s director. In social media posts, she has praised vaccines as a cornerstone of prevention, but has also extolled the virtues of a healthy diet and exercise, ideas aligned with Mr. Kennedy’s focus on chronic diseases.
In a social media post, Mr. Kennedy said he looked forward to working with Dr. Schwartz “to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at the @CDCgov so we can return it to its core mission and Make America Healthy Again.”
In vetting candidates for the position, the administration faced the difficult task of finding someone who could support Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda while resisting his unpopular policies on vaccines and winning Senate confirmation.
Some public health experts welcomed Dr. Schwartz’s credentials and experience as a close fit for the C.D.C.’s core mission of public health.
“Health policy is political, but health itself should never be partisan,” said Dr. Anne Zink, a former president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials who served as Alaska’s chief medical officer until 2024.
“To rebuild the trustworthiness of the C.D.C., the country needs leaders grounded in service, science and the public,” Dr. Zink said.
But some close allies of Mr. Kennedy were incensed by the appointment, noting that Dr. Schwartz had helped to enforce vaccine mandates.
“Since she can’t even respect the right to and need for informed consent, there is little hope that she will respect the rights and needs of the vaccine injured,” Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has often joined Mr. Kennedy in lawsuits over vaccine safety, said in a text message.
“The explosion in childhood chronic disease over the last 40 years, coinciding with the explosion of the vaccine schedule, is unlikely to be addressed by someone who insists on mandating these products in violation of the right to informed consent,” he added.
Mr. Trump also announced Sean Slovenski, an executive in the health care industry, as the C.D.C.’s deputy director and chief operating officer; Dr. Jennifer Shuford, health commissioner for Texas, as the agency’s deputy director and chief medical officer; and Dr. Sara Brenner, who briefly served as the Food and Drug Administration’s acting commissioner, as a senior counselor to Mr. Kennedy.
The new team members replace political appointees currently at the agency who are more closely allied with Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism.
Dr. Shuford, an infectious disease physician, previously served as a medical officer and state epidemiologist for Texas. She “has always struck me as calm, practical and deeply focused on data and people over rhetoric,” said Dr. Zink, who has worked with Dr. Shuford for years. “Those are exactly the qualities C.D.C. leadership needs right now.”
During her time at the F.D.A., Dr. Brenner was one of the authors of a memo saying there was “no clear evidence” that the benefits of the vaccines for children under 18 outweighed the risk of harm. Still, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, an ear, nose and throat doctor who has campaigned for pulling Covid vaccines from the market, said that she was troubled by Dr. Brenner’s selection because she had not spoken up about vaccine safety during the pandemic.
“She stayed silent about those concerns,” Dr. Bowden said. “I have a hard time forgiving that.”
Several other candidates for the job of C.D.C. director were also staunch supporters of vaccines. Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippi’s state health officer, withdrew his name from consideration, but said the vetting process “was professional and encouraging” and did not include a litmus test for vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy and his allies have sought to reshape the childhood vaccine schedule, rescinding recommendations for several shots and questioning the safety of administering multiple vaccines at once. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Mr. Kennedy and his advisers had made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the schedule that were not backed up by scientific evidence.
The Trump administration has not appealed the ruling, but the Health Department has taken other steps that might allow Mr. Kennedy to skirt the judge’s decision and reclaim his revisions to vaccine recommendations.
Dr. Schwartz is a retired admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. She is also among the very few Black women in leadership roles in the second Trump administration. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, she oversaw the federal government’s program of drive-through testing sites. Dr. Schwartz was polite but firm when she disagreed with Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health at the time and her boss, on the program’s specifics.
“She’s not a wallflower, and she’s not afraid to speak truth to power,” recalled Dr. Giroir, a retired four-star admiral and pediatrician.
“She’s really wicked smart, and is not subject to rumor and conspiracy theories,” he added. “I’m very pleased that a person with her experience, credentials and dedication to public health and prevention is a candidate for this position.”
The agency has been without a permanent leader for all but 29 days of the second Trump administration. The White House withdrew its first pick, Dr. Dave Weldon, a Republican and former congressman, when it became clear that his anti-vaccine views would not pass muster with the Senate.
Susan Monarez, the previous permanent director, was confirmed by the Senate in July. About a month later, Mr. Kennedy fired her amid a dispute over vaccine policy and her refusal to accept the recommendations of his handpicked panel of vaccine advisers.
After Dr. Monarez’s ouster, Mr. Kennedy placed Jim O’Neill, a science and biotechnology investor who had no experience in public health, as the agency’s acting director. The administration reorganized the top leadership of the health department in February and moved Mr. O’Neill aside.
The White House then named Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, as acting director of the C.D.C., but that position ended after the administration failed to choose a new director within 210 days of Dr. Monarez’s exit. Despite lacking an official title, Dr. Bhattacharya still oversees the C.D.C.’s operations.
Benjamin Mueller contributed reporting.
