Wait! You mean she is qualified?

Wait! You mean she is qualified?

The president made an obvious mistake and nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz to head the CDC. Schwartz is that rare Trump appointee in that she is imminently qualified for the job. She was deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration. She is a board certified doctor of preventive medicine.  She holds degrees in biomedical engineering and medicine from Brown University and has a master’s degree in public health. She has a law degree from the University of Maryland has been admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and has been described as “wickedly smart.” Schwartz’s father was a career Navy master chief petty officer who joined the Navy at 17. Her three siblings all served in the military. I wonder if some of the MAGA crowd will insist that she is Trump’s DEI hire?

Schwartz spent the bulk of her career in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, including as the Coast Guard’s preventive medicine chief. She is also a retired rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. The CDC has been the subject of controversy with one nominee being withdrawn due to anti-vaccine views and another quitting soon after being named to the job. In contrast to her boss, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Schwartz is not in the anti-vaccine camp. Word is that Trump has told Kennedy to cool it with all the anti-vac rhetoric prior to the upcoming midterms. 

Here is what Trump tweeted on Truth Social: “I am pleased to announce the new leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is my Honor to nominate the incredibly talented Dr. Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, as my Director of the CDC. Erica graduated from Brown University for College and Medical School, and served a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine in the United States Military, the Greatest and Most Powerful Force in the World, and then served as my Deputy Surgeon General during my First Term. She is a STAR!” 

How Schwartz and Kennedy will coexist remains to be seen. However, Schwartz must have reached some accommodation in order to consent to be nominated. Jerome Adams who was Trump’s first surgeon general said Schwartz is “objectively the most qualified health nominee we’ve seen from this administration so far.”  But warned “Recent history tells us if she’s confirmed, she will be under real threat to follow ideology over evidence in what is a vaccine-skeptical HHS.”

This nomination is a home run and should be confirmed unanimously. If the democrats oppose her, it will not be a good look. And one wonders if Pete Hegseth will try to demote her from rear admiral or get her to retire like he has done with so many blacks and women in the military. I wonder if he knows that Schwartz is a black woman?