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By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO, April 15 (Reuters) - The White House is considering nominating former Deputy Surgeon General Erica Schwartz to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to one person familiar with internal conversations.
Schwartz, who served as Deputy Surgeon General during President Donald Trump’s first term, was directly involved in the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing national preparedness and public health coordination efforts.
News of Schwartz’s potential appointment follows leadership shakeups at the CDC since Trump fired Director Susan Monarez last August, over her objections to vaccine policy changes planned by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Monarez was replaced by HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, who was succeeded in February by Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
O’Neill, who held the role of acting CDC director in addition to his HHS post since August, vacated both positions in February and was offered the position of director of the National Science Foundation.
The potential appointment was praised by Brett Giroir, former assistant secretary of health during the first Trump administration, and Demetre Daskalakis, former CDC director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Both have been critical of Kennedy’s vaccine policies.
"I worked closely with her during the toughest of times and have the highest opinion of her intellect, integrity, and commitment to service," said Giroir.
Daskalakis said Schwartz showed "good leadership" during the COVID response and has a "proven track record with the commissioned corps, notably with pandemic preparedness."
Texas health commissioner Jen Shuford and top FDA official Sara Brenner are also in line for senior CDC roles, Dan Diamond, a reporter at the Washington Post, who first reported the news, posted on X, citing sources.
"They seem like a potentially great team if allowed to do their job by the HHS Secretary," said Daskalakis, who resigned from the CDC last year over changes to the agency’s vaccine policy.