President Donald Trumps nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) secured a pivotal boost on Capitol Hill when Sen.
Bill Cassidy (R-LA) signaled he would vote to confirm her.
Erica Schwartz, a 54-year-old U.S. Coast Guard veteran, physician, and former Deputy Surgeon General, was tapped by President Trump in April to take the helm of the CDC. According to Mediaite, her path to confirmation has been complicated by tensions surrounding vaccine policy and the influence of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent critic of childhood immunization programs.
During a contentious confirmation hearing last week, Schwartz appeared to test the patience of several senators who pressed her on whether she would challenge Kennedys anti-vaccine posture if necessary. She told the committee she would never betray the science, insisted she was unaware that CDC vaccine-promotion efforts had been scaled back, and declined to say whether she would remove a CDC webpage suggesting a possible link between childhood vaccines and autism, explaining she had not seen it.
Cassidy, who previously cast the decisive vote to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary, had remained publicly noncommittal on Schwartzs nomination for days, leaving her prospects uncertain. His endorsement is expected to move her nomination out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and closer to a full Senate vote.
After speaking with Dr. Schwartz again after the hearing, reviewing the transcript, and speaking to those who have served with her and know her well, Im confident that she knows what shes doing and will stand against those who do not, Cassidy said during a committee meeting, underscoring his belief that she will resist pressure from vaccine skeptics. As of Thursday, however, the CDCs own vaccine webpage still carried the warning that the statement vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.
CDC needs someone who understands that the way to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases is to reassure the public that vaccines are safe and effective, Cassidy said on Thursday, according to Politico. Im confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not.
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