On Wednesday the U.S. Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz to head the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Her confirmation gives the nation’s top public health body a leader after almost a year of acting directors, most recently Jay Bhattacharya, who serves as director of the National Institutes of Health. The current Trump administration’s first CDC director, Susan Monarez, was fired by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in August 2025, after less than a month in the role.
Prior to becoming CDC chief, Schwartz was deputy surgeon general—a civilian position that isn’t politically appointed—in the first Trump administration and a rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, where she served as chief medical officer.
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At a recent hearing before senators prior to her confirmation, Schwartz insisted that she would stand up to Kennedy on matters of public health when necessary. Schwartz’s predecessor Monarez said Kennedy had ousted her because she refused to rubber-stamp certain vaccine policies. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
“If I’m confirmed as a CDC director, the nation’s health and well-being will take primacy, and I will never compromise on that,” Schwartz said at the hearing.
Schwartz takes the helm of the CDC at a perilous moment: The U.S. is in the throes of a nationwide measles outbreak and skyrocketing cases of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that has so far been linked to iceberg lettuce and has killed at least two people. At the same time, public faith in the nation’s top public health body is at a nadir. A poll released in June found that just 50 percent of Americans said they trusted the agency’s health recommendations, compared with 77 percent in the spring of 2025.
Editor’s Note (8/5/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.
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