Robert F. Kennedy

Aug. 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz as the leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, finally installing a new director for the agency after nearly a year.

Schwartz was deputy surgeon general during President Donald Trump‘s first term. She is a retired U.S. Coast Guard officer and Navy physician.

The vote Wednesday was 51-44, mostly along party lines, NBC News reported. Sen.Tim Kaine, D-Va., voted with Republicans to approve Schwartz.

Schwartz succeeds Dr. Susan Monarez, who was fired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in August after less than a month in the job, allegedly because she disagreed with Kennedy about vaccines.

Monarez was followed by several acting directors — first Jim O’Neill, Kennedy’s deputy secretary, and then Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health.

The White House nominated Schwartz to fill the role in April. Kennedy said that he hadn’t spoken to Trump about nominating her.

Schwartz has a background of supporting and guiding vaccination programs for the government. She said at a Senate hearing in July that vaccines are safe and effective, although some health experts said she didn’t do enough to distance herself from some of Kennedy’s views, NBC News reported.

“As CDC director, my sacred responsibility is to provide the American people with public health guidance that is clear, honest and evidence based,” Schwartz said. “I will never betray the science.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Health, Education,Labor and Pensions Committee and a medical doctor, criticized Schwartz during the hearing for allegedly dodging his questions.

However, he said he chose to vote for Schwartz on Wednesday after they were able to talk again.

“I am confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not,” he said during a committee meeting in July. “If confirmed, I look forward to working with Dr. Schwartz to protect children’s health and regain trust in the CDC. There’s more to do to repair the damage that has been done to the U.S. public health response, but this is a start.”

The National Public Health Coalition, an advocacy group containing many former CDC employees, said last month that it would not support Schwartz’s nomination based on the July hearing.

“The public needed to hear clear commitments about how she would protect CDC guidance from political pressure,” it said in a statement. “Too often, her stated commitments were incomplete, vague or missing.”

July 23 (UPI) — A Senate committee delayed a vote on the Trump administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director nominee, Erica Schwartz, because enough members were not present.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was absent from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions meeting on Thursday because of a family emergency, which led committee chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., to postpone the vote, Politico reported.

Cassidy also said Thursday that he decided to vote for Schwartz because of a “good faith action” the CDC reportedly made to its website earlier in the day.

The action included changing language on its website about the lack of an association between vaccines and autism, which had been ordered changed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year.

Cassidy asked detailed questions during her nomination hearing about vaccines and how the agency, which has had a full-time director for just one month since President Donald Trump re-entered the White House, would restore confidence in its public health mission, The Hill reported.

“I’m confident that she knows what she’s doing and will stand against those who do not,” Cassidy said during the meeting.

“If confirmed, I look forward to working with Dr. Schwartz to protect children’s health and regain trust in the CDC,” he said.

“There’s more to do to repair the damage that has been done to the U.S. public health response, but this is a start,” the Louisiana Republican added.

Even with Cassidy deciding to vote for Schwartz, Republicans on the committee would have needed a Democrat or Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with the Democrats, to vote in favor.

Sanders ended that possibility when he expressed respect for Schwartz’s career but said that he was concerned she would not be able to hold off some of the controversial changes Kennedy has either proposed or forced on the agency.

“I will be voting against Dr. Schwartz because we need people in this country who are going to stand up, protect the American people and I don’t think you can see that right now with Secretary Kennedy in his position,” Sanders said.

The HELP committee’s next executive session is scheduled for July 30, which is also the next time it will consider nominations, making it the next opportunity for Schwartz’s nomination to come up for a vote.

The committee also put off a vote on Sean Kaufman, who is nominated to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, because Republicans did not have enough votes to forward the nomination to the full Senate.

June 10 (UPI) — The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released its recommended maternal vaccine schedule Wednesday, breaking for the first time on advice from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The group advises four vaccines during pregnancy, including a COVID-19 shot; a flu shot; a tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine; and a vaccine that protects the fetus against respiratory syncytial virus, commonly called RSV.

“Changing national recommendations coupled with rampant vaccine misinformation are resulting in confusion for both patients and healthcare professionals,” Camille Clare, ACOG president, said in a statement.”It is incredibly important for the public to have access to reliable,evidence-based information on maternal immunizations from a trusted source.”

The schedule also includes additional vaccines for those with certain risk factors and for those postpartum and breastfeeding. Thirteen other medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Nurse-Midwives, endorsed the list.

The CDC, under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, changed its recommended maternal vaccine schedule last year, removing the flu and COVID-19 shots, The Hill reported.

In changing the schedule in 2025, the CDC did not its usual process of using a panel of vaccine experts to review studies and make advice. The American Academy of Pediatrics and some U.S. states have also broken with the new CDC guidelines.

“Immunization is an essential part of preventative care forpeople who are pregnant, postpartum and lactating — and for their infants,” ACOG said in its recommendations. “OB-GYNs can reduce the frequency of vaccine-preventable diseases by being aware of current vaccine recommendations, counseling patients to receive appropriate vaccines and integrating vaccination into routine clinical practice.”