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August 5, 2026
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Trump CDC prime Erica Schwartz confirmed to lead nation's apical nationalist wellness agency
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't had a full-time leader successful almost a year
By Claire Cameron
Erica Schwartz attends her information proceeding to go Director Of nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pinch nan Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee connected Capitol Hill July 15, 2026 successful Washington, DC.
Finn Gomez/Getty Images
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The U.S. Senate connected Wednesday confirmed Erica Schwartz to caput nan U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Her confirmation gives nan nation's apical nationalist wellness assemblage a leader aft almost a twelvemonth of acting directors, astir precocious Jay Bhattacharya, who serves arsenic nan head of nan National Institutes of Health. The Trump administration's first CDC director, Susan Monarez, was fired by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., successful August 2025 aft little than a period successful nan job.
Prior to becoming CDC chief, Schwartz was a lawman surgeon wide successful nan first Trump administration—a civilian position that isn't politically appointed—and a rear admiral successful nan U.S. Coast Guard, wherever she served arsenic main aesculapian officer.
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At a caller proceeding earlier senators anterior to her confirmation, Schwartz insisted that she would guidelines up to Kennedy connected matters of nationalist wellness erstwhile necessary. Her predecessor, Monarez, said Kennedy had ousted her because she refused to rubber stamp vaccine policies. The Department of Health and Human Services did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.
“If I’m confirmed arsenic a CDC director, nan nation’s wellness and well-being will return primacy, and I will ne'er discuss connected that,” Schwartz said astatine nan hearing.
Schwartz takes nan helm of nan CDC astatine a perilous moment: The U.S. is successful nan throes of a nationwide bales outbreak and skyrocketing cases of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that has truthful acold been linked to iceberg lettuce and has killed astatine slightest two people. At nan aforesaid time, nationalist religion successful nan nation's apical nationalist wellness assemblage is astatine a nadir. A poll released successful June recovered that conscionable 50 percent of Americans said they trusted nan agency’s wellness recommendations, compared pinch 77 percent successful outpouring 2025.
Editor's note: This is simply a processing communicative and whitethorn beryllium updated.
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