Nearly one year after the firing of the last confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), senators on Capitol Hill grilled President Donald Trump’s new nominee about how she would respond to pressure from the administration, particularly regarding vaccine policy.
While the nominee, Erica Schwartz, MD, MPH, JD, affirmed her support for vaccines and medical evidence, she avoided saying whether she would defy administration orders to limit access to vaccines or curb efforts to undermine confidence in immunizations.
“The most important thing to know about me is that I come from a God-fearing military family,” Schwartz said when introducing herself to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).
“If confirmed, my first priority will be restoring trust in public health institutions through radical transparency and unwavering scientific integrity,” said Schwartz, who served as deputy US surgeon general during Trump’s first term and served as a rear admiral in the Coast Guard. “As CDC director, my sacred responsibility is to provide the American people with public health guidance that is clear, honest, and evidence-based. I will never betray the science.”
Tumultuous times at the CDC
While many committee members praised Schwartz’s experience, several mentioned the chaos that has engulfed the CDC under Trump’s tenure. The agency has had a permanent director for less than one month of the Trump administration, and many leadership roles at the agency remain vacant.
“While I think you are immensely qualified, I am very, very concerned,” said Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat. Rochester stressed that other highly qualified public health officials “have either had to change their positions or quit.”
Several committee members, particularly Democrats, used the hearing to lambast Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has worked to reduce access to vaccines. During Kennedy’s leadership, senators noted, the United States has experienced its largest measles outbreak in 35 years and is currently in the midst of a nationwide outbreak of explosive diarrhea caused by Cyclospora infections that has sickened nearly 7,000 people.
“Let us be clear: The major reason we are here today is because Secretary Kennedy fired Dr. Susan Monarez, the first Senate-confirmed CDC director, after less than one month on the job,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and ranking minority committee member.
My first priority will be restoring trust in public health institutions through radical transparency and unwavering scientific integrity.
Monarez “refused to act as a rubber stamp for Secretary Kennedy’s very dangerous agenda to limit the use of safe and effective vaccines,” Sanders said. “Dr. Monarez, to her credit, stood up for science, public health, and for the scientific method. Frankly, she stood up for protecting the well-being of the American people, and that was the reason that she was fired.
Evasive answers
On a number of occasions, senators pressed Schwartz to provide a yes or no answer, but didn’t get one.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, noted that Kennedy canceled a CDC campaign to promote flu vaccines in 2025 during an influenza season in which nearly 300 children died. She asked Schwartz multiple times how she would respond to such a move. If Kennedy “ordered you to stop promoting the flu vaccine during a deadly flu season for children, would you carry out that order?”
“I don’t speak in hypotheticals,” Schwartz said.
“So, yes or no?” Hassan asked. “ Are you going to protect our kids, or are you going to follow an uninformed order from the secretary?”
Schwartz answered, “Senator, I will always, always protect our children.”
Hassan asked again, “You would refuse that order, yes or no?”
Schwartz responded, “Senator, my understanding of what happened back then was that the secretary has, he has various priorities, and as he’s as he’s looking at his priorities in terms of what…”
Hassan cut in, “I’m sorry, that’s not acceptable.”
Pleading ignorance but supporting mRNA vaccines
In several cases, Schwartz responded to questions about Trump administration actions by stating that she was unaware of them.
For example, Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, asked Schwartz about the national Cyclospora outbreak. Murray asked Schwartz if she agreed with the CDC decision last year to make tracking cases of the Cyclospora parasite optional, rather than mandatory, via FoodNet, which tracks foodborne pathogens but is not used for active outbreak surveillance.
“This is the first I’ve heard of that,” Schwartz said.
Murray also asked Schwartz if she supported the administration’s decision to eliminate nearly $500 million in contracts that funded mRNA vaccine development.
“This is the first time I’m actually hearing about this,” Schwartz said. “As a private citizen, I certainly was not following that.”
Schwartz added, “As we had discussed before, mRNA technology is safe and effective.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Democrat, asked Schwartz if she accepted the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism. Schwartz responded that she did accept that evidence.
Sanders then asked, “If confirmed, will you commit to removing information on the CDC website suggesting a link between vaccines and autism?”
Schwartz replied, “You have my commitment that I will look at that exact website. I have not seen that. I will speak with the secretary.”
Sanders also asked Schwartz if she would alert Congress if she is given “directives from the secretary or any other individual in the Trump administration to implement policies that are unscientific and can harm the health and well-being of the American people?”
Schwartz answered, “I do not believe that the president or the secretary would ever do what you just mentioned.”
Positive statements on birth vitamin K, various vaccines
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat, questioned Schwartz about her opinion on vitamin K shots, which are routinely provided to newborns to prevent life-threatening bleeding and strokes.
Alsobrooks noted that vaccine misinformation has “created a spillover effect that is increasingly causing parents to refuse the vitamin K shot and other routine care.”
“I can confirm that the vitamin K shot is safe,” Schwartz said. “Vitamin K can absolutely reduce the hemorrhaging in children, newborns. I absolutely believe it is safe to get the vaccine.”
Alsobrooks also asked Schwartz if she agrees with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to make flu shots for military troops voluntary, rather than mandatory. Earlier this year, Hegseth described the military’s flu vaccination policy as “absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war-fighting capabilities.”
Only about a month after that policy change, influenza began spreading at a Texas military base, infecting 300 troops and killing a 25-year-old trainee.
“Do I believe in vaccine mandates for military members? I do believe in certain circumstances,” Schwartz said.
“I believe that vaccines are safe and effective,” Schwartz told the committee. “I have personally given thousands of vaccines to military members for force health protection and readiness.”
But Schwartz said she also wants to engage with people who have doubts about vaccines.
“I understand why parents have vaccine hesitancy,” Schwartz said. “I don’t want to ignore them. I don’t want to dismiss them. I want to have an open conversation with them.”
I have personally given thousands of vaccines to military members for force health protection and readiness.
In response to questions about cuts at the CDC, Schwartz said she supports the agency’s original mission to combat infectious diseases.
When asked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville about her views on nutrition and healthy diets, Schwartz told the Alabama Republican that she is “all in on the Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Pushing for answers
At times, senators expressed frustration that Schwartz did not provide the answers they sought.
“I almost feel like I’m having to go after this question a little bit more firmly than I feel like I should,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and committee chair. “You can be CDC director and just take orders. We need a CDC director that will actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization. Are you the person?
“I’m being very direct here because obviously I feel like we’ve got thousands of hospitalized because people have promoted that immunization is bad, and now kids have died because of it. It is evil to do that,” Cassidy said. “Will you have the ability and the firmness to stand up to that political meddling, to say no?”
Schwartz replied, “You have my assurances that I will continue to lead by my integrity. I will never compromise on the science. I will always have the public’s health in mind.”
“That’s not quite the direct answer I’m hoping for,” Cassidy said.
The HELP committee will vote on whether to forward Schwartz’s nomination to the full Senate, which would vote to confirm or reject her.