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Trump announces he's nominating Dr. Erica Schwartz for CDC director

By
Kathryn Watson
Politics Reporter
Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
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Kathryn Watson

/ CBS News

Washington — President Trump Thursday that he's nominating Dr. Erica Schwartz to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

Schwartz, who served as Mr. Trump's deputy surgeon general during his first term, is a Coast Guard rear admiral. She received her medical degree from Brown University and also holds a law degree from the University of Maryland.

"She is a STAR!" the president wrote on Truth Social, also calling her "incredibly talented." 

CBS News reported Wednesday that Schwartz was emerging as the president's top pick for the role. 

Dr. Erica Schwartz
Dr. Erica Schwartz U.S. Coast Guard

She as the Coast Guard's director of health, safety and work-life, overseeing the branch's system of 41 clinics and 150 sick bays, among other responsibilities. She has also instituted anthrax and smallpox vaccination policies, overseen disaster responses and responded to the Ebola crisis. 

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has been serving as acting CDC director. Last year, then-CDC director Susan Monarez was ousted from her job less than a month after the Senate confirmed her.  

The president also said he's naming Sean Slovenski to be CDC deputy director and chief operating officer, and Dr. Jennifer Shuford to be CDC deputy director and chief medical officer. Dr. Sara Brenner will also be Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s senior counselor for public health, the president said. 

"These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC," the president wrote, criticizing the CDC under former President Joe Biden. 

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