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Senate committee advances nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to be Trump’s CDC director 20%
By MIKE STOBBE36%
7/30/2026, 7:40:39 AM
Keywords: Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, Donald Trump, Ga State Wire, La State Wire, Dave Weldon, Immunizations, Government Appointments And Nominations, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Public Health, Bill Cassidy, Louisiana, Georgia, Bernie Sanders, Erica Schwartz, Politics, Health, Government And Politics, Daniel Jernigan, Sean Kaufman, Susan Monarez, Georges Benjamin
BS Summary: This article contains 7 faulty reasoning types, including Overconfidence Bias, Framing Effect, and Hasty Generalization, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 29.1% saturation with 241 hits. Analysis detected 456 faulty-reasoning hits from 829 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.5% and a BS Rank of 20% (18,215 of 22,577 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 80.70% of the article peer group.
Senate committee advances nomination of Dr.
Erica Schwartz to be Trump’s CDC director
NEW YORK (AP) — A Senate committee on Thursday advanced Dr.
Erica Schwartz’s nomination to be director of the nation’s top public health agency, setting aside concerns that she will not stand up to political meddling.
If confirmed by the full Senate, the 54-year-old would become the 22nd director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is charged with protecting Americans from preventable health threats.
Her resume includes medical and law degrees, a stint as deputy surgeon general, and a leadership position at the U.S.
Coast Guard.
Schwartz appeared to be on shaky ground after a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this month.
The chairman, Sen.
Bill Cassidy, R-La., and others questioned whether she would be willing to stand up to Republican President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., if he ordered CDC to do something that was unsupported by science and good public health practice.
But when the committee met last week, Cassidy said he had spoken with Schwartz after that hearing and to others who knew her.
“I’m confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not,” said Cassidy, whose support was necessary for the nomination to go forward.
The committee’s near party-line vote Thursday moved Schwartz’s nomination ahead.
Among those who opposed her was Sen.
Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent.
“The issue at hand is not complicated,” Sanders said last week.
“Will we have people in the Trump administration who have the guts to stand up to people who are anti-science and into conspiracy theories?”
The National Public Health Coalition, an organization of former and current CDC workers, was not reassured by her responses and said senators should require specific written commitments from Schwartz on scientific independence, evidence-based vaccine policy, conflicts of interest and other issues.
“The public needed to hear clear commitments about how she would protect CDC guidance from political pressure,” the group said in a statement.
“Too often, her stated commitments were incomplete, vague, or missing.”
At Schwartz’s hearing, Cassidy and some other senators asked her what she would do if Kennedy or other political appointees instructed the CDC to make changes that were not supported by science.
Schwartz pledged to “never betray the science,” but she repeatedly declined to dissent from some of the actions Kennedy has taken.
The CDC has had several leaders under Trump
Schwartz was the third Trump nominee for the office in the past 18 months.
The first was a former Florida congressman, Dr.
David Weldon.
His Senate hearing in March 2025 was canceled an hour before it was to begin.
Weldon said at the time that he had been told not enough senators were willing to vote for him.
The White House then moved on to Susan Monarez, who had been serving as the CDC’s acting director.
Monarez was confirmed by the Senate, but she was ousted in less than a month.
Trump administration officials said she was not aligned with the president’s agenda so they terminated her.
Since then there have been a series of HHS officials as acting CDC director.
The committee also advanced a controversial health nominee
The CDC position is one of a number of leadership vacancies among federal health agencies, including surgeon general and commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Also unfilled is the job of assistant health secretary for preparedness and response.
That official oversees preparations and response to public health emergencies and disasters and is involved in decisions about funding next-generation vaccines against pandemic flu or other infectious disease threats.
Trump wants Sean Kaufman in that post, and the Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination by a party-line vote.
In LinkedIn postings, Kaufman has made comments cheered by vaccine skeptics, arguing against hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns and saying he served as an expert witness to advocate for people who refused the COVID-19 vaccine.
He also supported a Trump administration decision last year to cancel projects to develop vaccines using mRNA technology.
“Mr.
Kaufman has said some pretty stupid things and irresponsible things regarding immunization,” Cassidy said.
But Cassidy said he spoke to HHS officials and was assured that personnel changes are being made at the department to provide “better oversight to ensure that science, not ideology, is driving decision-making.”
Cassidy also said he has been assured that if Kaufman is confirmed, “he will not be involved in vaccine policy and nor will he be the ultimate decision-maker on certain issues.”
Sanders, who voted against Kaufman, said: “I think the American people are owed better than what President Trump has nominated.”
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