2026年7月30日 美国东部时间15:06 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
当地时间周四，参议院委员会通过了埃丽卡·施瓦茨博士出任美国顶级公共卫生机构负责人的提名，搁置了有关她无法抵御政治干预的担忧。
如果获得全体参议员确认，这位54岁的人士将成为总部位于亚特兰大的疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）第22任主任。该机构的职责是保护美国人免受可预防的健康威胁。她的履历包括医学和法学学位、曾任副卫生局局长，以及在美国海岸警卫队担任领导职务。
本月在参议院卫生、教育、劳工与养老金委员会举行听证会后，施瓦茨的提名曾一度岌岌可危。委员会主席、路易斯安那州共和党参议员比尔·卡西迪等人质疑，如果特朗普总统的卫生部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪下令CDC采取缺乏科学依据和良好公共卫生实践支持的行动，她是否愿意挺身而出反对。
但在委员会上周举行会议时，卡西迪表示，他在听证会结束后与施瓦茨进行了交谈，还咨询了了解她的其他人。
“我相信她清楚自己的职责，会与那些不守规矩的人对抗到底，”卡西迪说。他的支持对提名顺利推进至关重要。
委员会周四以接近党派路线的投票结果推动施瓦茨的提名向前迈进。
2026年7月15日，埃丽卡·施瓦茨在参议院就出任疾病控制和预防中心主任一职的提名举行听证会上。芬恩·戈麦斯 / 盖蒂图片社
反对她提名的人士包括佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯。
“当前的问题并不复杂，”桑德斯上周表示，“我们需要的是特朗普政府中有人有勇气对抗那些反科学、信奉阴谋论的人吗？”
自特朗普去年重新就职以来，CDC一直处于动荡之中。
主要由于裁员和辞职，该机构已流失3000多名员工，超过其总 workforce 的四分之一。随着多任大多为临时负责人的上任又离任，机构士气一落千丈。前台办公室由几乎没有医学或公共卫生培训背景的政治任命人员担任。
今年4月施瓦茨获得提名时，公共卫生专家们持谨慎乐观态度，称赞她的背景。他们还指出，她是特朗普的选择，而非肯尼迪——后者在被任命监督CDC和其他联邦卫生机构之前，是反疫苗运动的领军人物。
肯尼迪曾承诺不会改变美国的疫苗接种计划，但后来试图大幅修改儿童疫苗接种建议。其中一些举措今年被联邦法官叫停。
肯尼迪的行为激怒了卡西迪。作为一名医生，卡西迪最初对特朗普提名肯尼迪担任卫生部长表示怀疑。最终在这位被提名人承诺不会改变美国儿童疫苗接种建议后，卡西迪才批准了他的提名。
在施瓦茨的听证会上，卡西迪和其他一些参议员问她，如果肯尼迪或其他政治任命人员指示CDC做出缺乏科学依据的调整，她会怎么做。施瓦茨承诺“永远不会背叛科学”，但她多次拒绝就肯尼迪采取的某些行动提出异议。
国家公共卫生联盟——一个由前和现任CDC工作人员组成的组织——并未被她的回应打消疑虑，并表示参议员们应该要求施瓦茨就科学独立性、基于证据的疫苗政策、利益冲突等问题做出具体的书面承诺。
“公众需要听到她将如何保护CDC的指导意见免受政治压力的明确承诺，”该组织在一份声明中说，“她此前的公开承诺往往不完整、模糊，甚至缺失。”
在听证会上，施瓦茨表示，她不知道CDC旨在预防吸烟和推广疫苗接种的项目已被削减。她拒绝承诺拆除一个暗示儿童疫苗与自闭症存在关联的CDC网站。她说自己从未见过该页面，但同意现有医学证据并未发现两者存在关联。
上周，卡西迪表示，“作为诚意的象征”，卫生与公众服务部（HHS）的官员已修改了该页面。但本周，该页面仍坚持称“疫苗不会导致自闭症”并非基于证据的说法，尽管已有大量研究未发现此类关联。
美国公共卫生协会执行主任乔治·本杰明博士将施瓦茨的表现解读为她试图讨好不同派系。他不同意她对部分问题的回答方式，但仍支持她的提名。
他在最近的一次采访中表示，施瓦茨具备相应资质，或许能够重建CDC depleted的指挥结构，并通过关注食源性疾病暴发等两党共同关注的问题，重新建立公众对该机构的信任。
去年8月辞职的CDC前高级官员丹尼尔·杰尼根博士也表达了同样的看法。
如果施瓦茨未能获得确认，“这将意味着CDC继续处于无人掌舵的状态”，他说。
对于肯尼迪来说，“不得不重新开始或许正是他想要的——接下来数月都没人能阻止他继续推行此前一直在做的反科学、反疫苗行动”，杰尼igan说。
施瓦茨是过去18个月中特朗普提名的第三位CDC主任人选。
第一位是前佛罗里达州国会议员戴维·韦尔登博士。他原定于2025年3月举行的参议院听证会在开始前一小时被取消。韦尔登当时表示，他被告知没有足够的参议员愿意投票支持他。
随后白宫转而提名了时任CDC代理主任的苏珊·莫纳雷斯。莫纳雷斯获得了参议院确认，但上任不到一个月就被免职。特朗普政府官员表示，她与总统的议程不一致，因此解雇了她。
自那以后，已有多位HHS官员担任CDC代理主任。
CDC主任职位是联邦卫生机构众多领导职位空缺之一，其他还包括卫生局局长和食品药品监督管理局局长。
负责卫生与公众服务部助理部长（负责防备与应对事务）一职也尚未有人填补。该官员负责监督公共卫生紧急事件和灾害的防备与应对工作，并参与有关大流行性流感或其他传染病威胁的下一代疫苗研发资金决策。
特朗普希望肖恩·考夫曼担任这一职务，参议院委员会周四以党派路线投票通过了他的提名。
在领英的帖子中，考夫曼发表过令疫苗怀疑论者欢呼的言论，反对为新生儿接种乙肝疫苗，并表示曾作为专家证人支持拒绝接种新冠疫苗的人。他还支持特朗普政府去年取消利用mRNA技术开发疫苗项目的决定。
“考夫曼先生在免疫接种问题上说过一些相当愚蠢且不负责任的话，”卡西迪说。
但卡西迪表示，他已与HHS官员交谈，并得到保证，该部门正在进行人事调整，以提供“更好的监督，确保决策由科学而非意识形态驱动”。
卡西迪还表示，他已得到保证，如果考夫曼获得确认，“他将不会参与疫苗政策制定，也不会成为某些问题的最终决策者”。
投票反对考夫曼提名的桑德斯表示：“我认为美国人民理应得到比特朗普总统提名的人选更好的选择。”
Senate committee advances Dr. Erica Schwartz to be Trump’s CDC director
2026-07-30 15:06 EDT / CBS News
A Senate committee on Thursday advanced Dr. Erica Schwartz’s nomination to be director of the nation’s top public health agency, setting aside concerns that she will not stand up to political meddling.
If confirmed by the full Senate, the 54-year-old would become the 22nd director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is charged with protecting Americans from preventable health threats. Her resume includes medical and law degrees, a stint as deputy surgeon general and a leadership position at the U.S. Coast Guard.
Schwartz appeared to be on shaky ground after a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this month. The chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, and others questioned whether she would be willing to stand up to President Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., if he ordered CDC to do something that was unsupported by science and good public health practice.
But when the committee met last week, Cassidy said he had spoken with Schwartz after that hearing and to others who knew her.
“I’m confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not,” said Cassidy, whose support was necessary for the nomination to go forward.
The committee’s near party-line vote Thursday moved Schwartz’s nomination ahead.
Dr. Erica Schwartz at her Senate confirmation hearing to become director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 15, 2026. Finn Gomez / Getty Images
Among those who opposed her was Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent.
“The issue at hand is not complicated,” Sanders said last week. “Will we have people in the Trump administration who have the guts to stand up to people who are anti-science and into conspiracy theories?”
The CDC has been in turmoil since Mr. Trump returned to office last year.
Largely due to layoffs and resignations, the agency has lost 3,000-plus employees, more than one-quarter of its workforce. Morale has plummeted as a succession of mostly temporary leaders have come and gone. The front office has been staffed by political appointees with little or no training in medicine or public health.
When Schwartz was nominated in April, public health experts were cautiously optimistic, citing her background. They also noted she was the choice of Mr. Trump and not Kennedy, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before he was tapped to oversee the CDC and other federal health agencies.
Kennedy had promised not to change the nation’s vaccination schedule but later attempted a substantial rewrite of vaccine recommendations for kids. Some of those efforts were put on hold this year by a federal judge.
Kennedy’s actions have rankled Cassidy, a physician who initially expressed doubts about Kennedy as Mr. Trump’s pick to be health secretary. Cassidy ultimately signed off on Kennedy after the nominee promised not to change the nation’s childhood vaccine recommendations.
At Schwartz’s hearing, Cassidy and some other senators asked her what she would do if Kennedy or other political appointees instructed the CDC to make changes that were not supported by science. Schwartz pledged to “never betray the science,” but she repeatedly declined to dissent from some of the actions Kennedy has taken.
The National Public Health Coalition, an organization of former and current CDC workers, was not reassured by her responses and said senators should require specific written commitments from Schwartz on scientific independence, evidence-based vaccine policy, conflicts of interest and other issues.
“The public needed to hear clear commitments about how she would protect CDC guidance from political pressure,” the group said in a statement. “Too often, her stated commitments were incomplete, vague, or missing.”
At the hearing, Schwartz said she was unaware that CDC programs that worked to prevent smoking and promote vaccinations had been curtailed. She declined to commit to taking down a CDC website that suggests a link between childhood vaccines and autism. She said she had not seen it, though she agreed existing medical evidence has not found a link.
Last week, Cassidy said that “as a sign of good faith” officials at the Department of Health and Human Services had modified the page. But this week, it continued to argue that “vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim, despite numerous studies that have found no such link.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, interpreted Schwartz’s performance as someone trying to please different factions. He disagreed with how she answered several questions, but continued to support her nomination.
He said in a recent interview that Schwartz is qualified, might be able to rebuild the CDC’s depleted command structure and could start to rebuild public trust in the agency by focusing on bipartisan concerns such as foodborne disease outbreaks.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, a former top CDC official who resigned in August, echoed that.
If Schwartz is not confirmed, “it will mean a continued rudderless journey for CDC,” he said.
For Kennedy, “having to start over is probably what he wants — many more months with no one stopping him from pursuing the same anti-science and anti-vaccine efforts he has been pursuing,” Jernigan said.
Schwartz was the third Trump nominee for the office in the past 18 months.
The first was a former Florida congressman, Dr. David Weldon. His Senate hearing in March 2025 was canceled an hour before it was to begin. Weldon said at the time that he had been told not enough senators were willing to vote for him.
The White House then moved on to Susan Monarez, who had been serving as the CDC’s acting director. Monarez was confirmed by the Senate, but she was ousted in less than a month. Trump administration officials said she was not aligned with the president’s agenda so they terminated her.
Since then, there have been a series of HHS officials as acting CDC director.
The CDC position is one of a number of leadership vacancies among federal health agencies, including surgeon general and commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Also unfilled is the job of assistant health secretary for preparedness and response. That official oversees preparations and response to public health emergencies and disasters and is involved in decisions about funding next-generation vaccines against pandemic flu or other infectious disease threats.
Mr. Trump wants Sean Kaufman in that post, and the Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination by a party-line vote.
In LinkedIn postings, Kaufman has made comments cheered by vaccine skeptics, arguing against hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns and saying he served as an expert witness to advocate for people who refused the COVID-19 vaccine. He also supported a Trump administration decision last year to cancel projects to develop vaccines using mRNA technology.
“Mr. Kaufman has said some pretty stupid things and irresponsible things regarding immunization,” Cassidy said.
But Cassidy said he spoke to HHS officials and was assured that personnel changes are being made at the department to provide “better oversight to ensure that science, not ideology, is driving decision-making.”
Cassidy also said he has been assured that if Kaufman is confirmed, “he will not be involved in vaccine policy and nor will he be the ultimate decision-maker on certain issues.”
Sanders, who voted against Kaufman, said: “I think the American people are owed better than what President Trump has nominated.”
