After Wednesday’s nomination hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, it remains an open question as to whether Dr. Erica Schwartz, a highly credentialed Coast Guard doctor, will become the next director of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
But one thing came across clearly during the two-hour hearing: Senators from both parties have had more than enough of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and anyone aligned with him.
Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a Republican physician from Louisiana, opened the hearing with a red line. He made clear, as he addressed Schwartz and Sean Kaufman, the candidate to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, that vaccines save lives. “Any equivocation on these facts, and I shall not be able to support your … nomination,” he told them.
At turns skeptical and beleaguered, the senators grilled Schwartz over the state of America’s public health, laying out a litany that resembled a list of biblical plagues.
What about the massive Ebola outbreak spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo? The CDC’s failed monitoring of the growing cyclospora outbreak, with its grisly symptom of explosive diarrhea? The torpedoing of the lifesaving hepatitis B birth dose vaccine? The deadly flu outbreak on a Texas Air Force base, due to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s misguided contention that mandating a flu vaccination would hurt military readiness?
As the senators bore down on Schwartz, an MD who also holds a JD and a masters in public health, it was clear her inquisitors had yet another ailment to reckon with: their own post-traumatic stress disorder, after navigating the wreckage of America’s public health agencies since Donald Trump retook office last year.
In February 2025, after all, it was Cassidy who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as health secretary.
In doing so, he wrestled aloud with his conscience, like Lear on the heath. From there, his worst fears were realized. The committee confirmed Dr. Susan Monarez, the last CDC director, in late July 2025, only to see her forced out by Kennedy a month later, after she’d refused to rubber stamp the recommendations of a vaccine advisory committee that Kennedy had initially purged and then restocked with like-minded allies.
The committee continued to watch the exodus of numerous high-ranking and qualified health leaders, who were laid off or resigned in protest, leaving numerous HHS agencies, and key divisions within them, leaderless with thread-bare staffing. There is currently no Senate-confirmed CDC director, FDA commissioner, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, or surgeon general. And at the FDA, the acting commissioner is a little-known lawyer, who rose to prominence after being Don Jr.’s hunting buddy.
The senators seemed intensely skeptical, as both Schwartz and Kaufman walked an improbable line, seeming to endorse the public health judgments of both Trump and Kennedy, while asserting that they supported traditional public health measures such as vaccination.
“We need a CDC director that will actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization,” Cassidy stated. “Are you the person?”
Schwartz responded, “I will never compromise on the science. I will always, always have the public’s health in mind.” The answer left Cassidy unsatisfied.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tried again. “Will you commit that you will report to Congress if you receive directives from Secretary Kennedy or any other individual in the Trump administration to implement policies that are unscientific and could harm the health and well-being of the American people.”
To which Schwartz replied, “I do not believe that the president or the secretary would ever do what you just mentioned.” Her response appeared to leave committee members incredulous.
“Really?” Sanders cut her off.
Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) questioned her about why the CDC had eliminated mandatory tracking of the cyclospora parasite last July. “Now here we are a year later, and we’re already seeing over 7,000 confirmed or under investigation cases and over 100 hospitalizations with no single cause being identified.” She asked, “Is there any scientific or medical justification for CDC having eliminated mandatory reporting of that parasite?”
Schwartz’s response: “First I’ve heard of that.”
And so it went, as Schwartz persisted in her diplomacy.
As Sen. Cassidy told Schwartz towards the end of the two-plus hour hearing, “I’m here personally liking you, but feeling as if I’m having to represent the public health of the United States of America, so that it’s not taken over by people who are ideologically inclined and looking to file a lawsuit, not looking to prevent disease.”
Surely, he knows it’s a little too late for that.
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