The Good & The Bad In Erica Schwartz’s Confirmation Hearings To Lead CDC

from the two-sides-to-every-schwartz dept

There’s a lot of health news going on in the country right now, in no small part to the absolutely pitiful and pathetic job RFK Jr. is doing heading up HHS. It is a near certainty that by the end of this week, the CDC will have published an updated case count for measles that is greater than last year’s total case count, which was itself the largest since the 90s. Pertussis is also surging. There’s that new outbreak going around where you apparently just shit your pants constantly, like some kind of minor South Park character or something.

And so it was something of a breath of fresh air when the Trump administration nominated Erica Schwartz to lead the CDC, all because she appeared to be well qualified for the role and hadn’t said anything crazy-pants about things like vaccines. That this has become the standard for a feel-good HHS story is telling, but it was welcome news all the same.

Commenting on the nomination, Kennedy said he wouldn’t commit to taking CDC advice on vaccines, nor would he commit to not directly interfering with CDC operations and policy making.

Kennedy’s response Tuesday suggested Schwartz could face an equally short tenure. His answer came amid an exchange with Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) in a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Ruiz asked Kennedy: “If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?”

Kennedy replied without hesitation: “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment.”

Which is part of what informed senators to ask Schwartz about resisting Kennedy’s fuckery in her confirmation hearings. Sadly, it appears that Schwartz refused to demonstrate that she in fact has a backbone.

[D]uring a hearing sometimes marked by heated exchanges, Dr. Erica Schwartz repeatedly declined to say whether she would resist political pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.

Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., repeatedly questioned Schwartz about whether she would have authority to make personnel and policy decisions without political interference from the Health and Human Services Department. Schwartz did not directly answer whether she could hire and dismiss CDC employees independently or whether she would refuse directives from Kennedy that conflicted with scientific evidence.

Asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., whether she would carry out an order to discontinue a public campaign encouraging influenza vaccination, Schwartz replied, “I don’t speak in hypotheticals.”

And so, once again, the country will get to wonder whether the CDC really does have an actual director, or just some figurehead placed there to give Kennedy’s insanity the veneer of consensus. This is a very real problem given our current context and, frankly, these questions should not be terribly difficult to answer. For someone with integrity, at least, the answer should be something like, “As CDC’s Director, it would be my responsibility to refuse any order that would make the country less healthy, no matter who it comes from. And as CDC Director, I would have that authority by the nature of the position.”

All of that being said, Schwartz did at least reaffirm her sanity on the topic of vaccines.

Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Schwartz if she would remove a webpage updated last November on the CDC’s website on autism and vaccines. The webpage states that a link between the two has been ignored despite many studies finding no such link.

Schwartz said she accepted there is “overwhelming evidence” vaccines don’t cause autism, but did not commit to removing the webpage.

“Senator, I have been in situations where I have had to go to my superiors in the military to have conversations, very difficult conversations, about things that may have been concerning to the troops or to the military personnel, and I will do the same with [Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.],” she replied.

Once again, great that she is sane when it comes to vaccines, less great that she won’t commit to actually doing the right thing and removing the nonsense from CDC’s website.

I’m still relatively optimistic about Schwartz leading CDC. It may be that she didn’t want to publicly embarrass what would be her new boss if confirmed. It may be that she ends up pushing back hard on Kennedy’s attempts at interfering with her agency if confirmed, which will probably end up with her being fired. Even that would be fine by me, since it would be one more glaring data point of chaos at HHS under Kennedy.

If that led to Kennedy’s firing, it would be worth it.

Filed Under: autism, cdc, erica schwartz, health & human services, rfk jr., vaccines