Erica Schwartz, MD, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CDC, was questioned about her qualifications and vision for the role during a July 15 confirmation hearing, NPR and PBS reported.
The hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee was her first public appearance since she was nominated for the role in April, according to NPR.
If confirmed by the full Senate, she would succeed Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, director of the NIH, who has been leading the CDC in an interim capacity since February. Susan Monarez, PhD, was confirmed as CDC director in July 2025 before being ousted about a month later.
Here are six things to know:
1. In her opening statement, Dr. Schwartz pledged to pursue transparency and scientific integrity, NPR reported.
“If confirmed, my first priority will be restoring trust in public health institutions through radical transparency and unwavering scientific integrity,” Dr. Schwartz said. “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.”
2. Several senators questioned how Dr. Schwartz would handle pressure from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and she repeatedly declined to say whether she would push back on his actions, PBS reported.
3. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked Dr. Schwartz whether she would suspend a flu vaccination campaign if Mr. Kennedy ordered it during a severe flu season. Dr. Schwartz said she does not “speak in hypotheticals,” per PBS. Ms. Hassan said the scenario was not hypothetical, pointing to internal CDC emails released in June by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that documented such a directive.
Dr. Schwartz said she believed the CDC should prioritize responding to infectious diseases, but added that over time, “the CDC has had some mission creep, and it’s trying to be all things to all people.”
4. Dr. Schwartz told the committee she was unaware that CDC smoking-prevention and vaccine-promotion programs had been scaled back, and she declined to commit to removing a CDC webpage suggesting a link between childhood vaccines and autism, saying she had not seen it, according to PBS. She agreed current evidence does not support such a link.
5. If confirmed, Dr. Schwartz would take over the CDC amid a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak. As of July 13, the CDC had received reports of 1,645 domestic cases across 34 states since May 1, including 141 hospitalizations. Some health systems, including Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Bronson Healthcare and South Bend, Ind.-based Beacon Health System, have pulled lettuce and other leafy greens from cafeterias while the source of contamination is investigated.
6. Dr. Schwartz is a retired Coast Guard rear admiral who led a healthcare system with 41 clinics and oversaw programs in disease surveillance, vaccination and emergency response during her military career. She served as deputy surgeon general during President Trump’s first administration and, as of May 2025, was president of insurance solutions at UnitedHealthcare — a role and board seats at Butterfly Network and Aveanna Healthcare she has said she will leave if confirmed. She holds a medical degree from Brown University in Providence, R.I.
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