The CDC has a new director – now comes the hard part

Erica Schwartz was confirmed by the Senate 51-44 on Aug. 5, 2026, becoming only the second CDC director subject to Senate confirmation, a process Congress created after COVID-19. She takes over amid 2,566 confirmed measles cases and 38 outbreaks this year — the most since 1991 — a multistate cyclospora outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce with 9,481 illnesses and two deaths across 17 states, and international involvement in the largest Ebola outbreak in Congo's history.

Between January 2025 and June 2026, the Trump administration cut the CDC workforce by nearly one-third, according to Office of Personnel Management data, even as these outbreaks demand epidemiologists, lab capacity, and coordination. The administration, guided by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has also directed changes to the childhood immunization schedule that depart from the agency's standard evidence-review process.

At her July 15 hearing, senators questioned Schwartz on vaccines, scientific integrity, and how she would handle political pressure, creating a public record against which her decisions can now be measured. Whether that record translates into independence once she is in the job is, notably, not something the confirmation process can guarantee.

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