By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Julie Steenhuysen
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would nominate Erica Schwartz, who had served as deputy surgeon general during the COVID-19 pandemic, to become director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following multiple leadership shakeups at the health agency.
Schwartz, who served during Trump’s first term, was involved in the federal COVID response, helping to coordinate national preparedness and public health efforts.
The nomination represents a far more traditional pick for the embattled health agency, as the White House seeks to focus on more popular issues such as lowering drug prices and food safety, rather than Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial vaccine policies with Republicans bracing for a difficult November midterm election. At a pair of congressional hearings on Thursday, Kennedy largely avoided questions about vaccines.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, also said he was naming healthcare executive Sean Slovenski as CDC deputy director and chief operating officer, Texas Health Commissioner Jen Shuford as CDC deputy director and chief medical officer and FDA official Sara Brenner as senior counselor for public health to Kennedy.
The nominations come after a Massachusetts judge blocked key parts of Kennedy’s effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including a move to reduce the number of shots routinely recommended for children, and his overhaul of a CDC advisory committee on inoculations.
If approved, Schwartz would lead the Atlanta-based agency, which tracks and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. The CDC director traditionally has the final say on U.S. vaccine policy.
She would report to Kennedy, who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, contrary to established science.
Trump fired CDC Director Susan Monarez last August over her objections to vaccine policy changes planned by Kennedy. Her position was filled by two acting directors: Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, who was succeeded in February by Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
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Schwartz, who does not have a widely publicized position on vaccines, has been praised by former public health officials who have been critical of Kennedy’s vaccine policies.
Demetre Daskalakis, former CDC director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases who resigned after Monarez’s firing, said Schwartz showed “good leadership” during the COVID response and has a “proven track record… notably with pandemic preparedness.”
Polls have shown most voters disapprove of Kennedy’s moves to overhaul the childhood vaccination schedule.
The White House has pushed for more traditional candidates for top agency roles after Kennedy handpicked a slate of controversial political appointees who have undermined trust in vaccines, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
Close Kennedy ally and vaccine injury lawyer Aaron Siri was critical of the nomination.
“Her long track record of directly issuing rights-crushing civilian and military vaccine mandates, including mandating injection of smallpox, anthrax, and flu vaccines into U.S. Forces, and disciplining those that refused, reflects she lacks the basic ethics and morals to lead the CDC,” Siri said. “This agency does not need another cheerleader for industry.”
(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb in Washington and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Writing by Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Bill Berkrot)
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