Senate confirms Dr. Erica Schwartz as new CDC director

The U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz on Wednesday as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the CDC. The Senate voted 51 to 44 to approve her for the job. The CDC is the federal agency responsible for protecting Americans from diseases and other health threats. Dr. Schwartz will now lead an agency that has faced serious problems over the past year.

Dr. Schwartz is 54 years old and becomes the 22nd person to lead the CDC, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has both a medical degree and a law degree, and she once served as deputy surgeon general. She also held a leadership role with the U.S. Coast Guard. Her wide range of experience made public health experts feel hopeful when she was nominated.

Before the Senate voted, some lawmakers had doubts about whether Schwartz was the right choice. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and others wanted to know if she would speak up if Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed ideas that went against science. Kennedy is well known for questioning the safety of vaccines. After meeting with Schwartz again, Senator Cassidy said he felt more confident in her and supported her confirmation.

The CDC has gone through a very difficult stretch since President Donald Trump returned to office. The agency has lost more than 3,000 employees through layoffs and resignations, which is more than one-quarter of all its workers. Morale, which means how happy and motivated workers feel, has dropped sharply. A series of short-term leaders have come and gone, and many top positions were filled by people with little background in medicine or public health.

Schwartz was actually the third person Trump tried to put in charge of the CDC in the past year and a half. The first pick was a former Florida congressman named Dr. David Weldon, but his Senate hearing was canceled just one hour before it was supposed to start. Officials said too few senators were willing to vote for him. The second pick, Susan Monarez, was confirmed but was then removed from the job in less than a month because the Trump administration said she was not in line with the president's goals.

After Monarez was let go, several officials from the Department of Health and Human Services took turns serving as acting CDC director. The CDC job was not the only leadership opening in federal health agencies. The positions of U.S. surgeon general and the head of the Food and Drug Administration were also vacant. With Dr. Schwartz now confirmed, public health experts are hoping the CDC can find stability and focus on its core mission of keeping Americans healthy.