Top Republican senator says he will support Erica Schwartz for CDC director
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention won the support of a key Republican on Thursday after a page on the agency’s website about vaccines and autism was changed to address his objections.
The site still claims that vaccines may be linked to autism – a claim for which there is no scientific evidence and which infuriates Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and chairman of the Senate Health Committee, who is a doctor. But the revised page now includes a new statement at the bottom that says scientists have not identified “the root causes” of the disorder.
The candidate, Dr. Erica Schwartz, expressed strong support for the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in her testimony to the panel last week. But she was questioned extensively by Mr. Cassidy about whether she would stand up to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose passionate vaccine skepticism has deeply worried the senator.
As of Thursday morning, Mr. Cassidy had refused to say whether he would vote to confirm Dr. Schwartz would agree. When the senator finally announced his support for them, he pointed to the changes on the CDC website.
“As a show of good faith, HHS has now modified the CDC’s autism and vaccines webpage,” Cassidy said, referring to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. “There is more work to be done to repair the damage done to public health care in the U.S., but this is a start.”
The committee, which met in open session for a brief two minutes on Thursday, was then expected to consider the nomination of Dr. Schwartz vote. But the vote was postponed until next week because at least one other Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, was absent attending to a family emergency.
Mr. Cassidy, who has less than six months left in the Senate, had little incentive to please President Trump; He recently lost his primary to two other Republicans, one of whom was supported by Mr. Trump and allies of Mr. Kennedy. He has also feuded bitterly with Mr Kennedy, particularly over the minister’s claim that vaccinations may be linked to autism.
But Mr. Cassidy said he had decided to give Dr. Schwartz, a deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration, after speaking with her after the hearing, reviewing the transcript and speaking to people who worked with her.
“CDC needs someone who understands that vaccine-preventable diseases can be prevented by reassuring the public that vaccines are safe and effective,” Cassidy said Thursday. About Dr. He added Schwartz: “I’m confident that she knows what she’s doing and will stand up to those who don’t.”
Given Mr. Cassidy’s announcement and the decision to wait for all Republicans to be present at the vote, it is likely that Dr. Schwartz will be approved and sent to the full Senate, likely on a party-line vote.
The panel’s ranking member, Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said he was impressed by Dr. Schwartz, who is both a lawyer and a doctor. Mr. Sanders also said he shared Mr. Cassidy’s concerns about “major public health crises” and “conspiracy theorists telling parents across the country that vaccines don’t work or are dangerous.”
But he said he would vote against her because he was not convinced that Dr. Schwartz would be able to stand up to Mr. Kennedy, who heads the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC
“I am concerned that we currently have a secretary at HHS who will not tolerate dissent,” Sanders said.
Last year, Mr. Kennedy ordered the CDC to change its website on vaccines and autism, abandoning its longstanding position that the two are unrelated. The updated website retained the old heading, “Autism and Vaccinations,” and added an asterisk saying the heading remained intact only because of a promise to Mr. Cassidy.
The site still says that saying vaccines don’t cause autism is “not an evidence-based claim.” But the reference to Mr. Cassidy has been removed and the asterisk is now followed by a new statement.
“Scientists have not identified the root causes of autism,” the page now says, adding that Mr. Kennedy’s department “continues to support rigorous scientific research and will update this page as reliable new evidence becomes available.”
The CDC had no permanent leader for all but a month of Mr. Trump’s second term as the president struggled to find someone acceptable to the Senate. He chose the name of his first candidate, Dr. David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, returned after Dr. Weldon failed to gain enough Republican support.
His second nominee, Susan Monarez, was confirmed, but the White House fired her just 29 days later at Mr. Kennedy’s urging.
The agency has been temporarily headed for almost a year, most recently by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health.
