By SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has moved one step closer to confirmation, but not without raising concerns among lawmakers and public health advocates about whether the nation’s top disease agency can remain independent from political influence.
Dr. Erica Schwartz advanced Thursday after the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted 13-10 to send her nomination to the full Senate for consideration.
Schwartz, a physician and former deputy U.S. surgeon general during Trump’s first administration, faced pointed questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who asked whether she would oppose directives that conflict with established medical science. Schwartz responded that she would “never betray the science,” but stopped short of directly criticizing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose views on vaccines have drawn widespread criticism from many medical experts.
Schwartz, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, brings decades of military and public health experience to the nomination. If confirmed, she would oversee the nation’s leading public health agency at a time when vaccine policy and disease prevention remain politically charged issues.
Opponents, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the National Public Health Coalition, say they remain concerned about whether the CDC can maintain scientific independence under the current administration. The coalition has urged the Senate to require Schwartz to commit in writing to protecting evidence-based public health guidance and vaccine recommendations from political interference.
The full Senate is expected to consider Schwartz’s nomination in the coming weeks.