TrumpleThinskin’s handpicked nominee to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could not promise Wednesday that she would refuse an order to let children die.
Dr. Erica Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, appeared before the Senate Health Committee for a confirmation hearing that served as a masterclass in bureaucratic evasion. Senators asked her repeatedly whether she would disregard a directive to stop promoting flu vaccines during a deadly outbreak. Schwartz responded by describing the difficulty of managing a limited budget.
“One of the things that was very concerning was that the Surgeon General had a number of campaigns he wanted to do,” Schwartz said. “And yet, we had very limited resources.”
Senator Maggie Hassan reminded the nominee that the question was not about resources. It was about children.
The flu season last year killed almost 300 children, Hassan noted. The previous CDC director was fired for failing to advance Secretary Kennedy’s anti-vaccine agenda. Hassan asked Schwartz, again, whether she would carry out an order to stop promoting the flu vaccine.
Schwartz returned to the subject of scarce funding.
The exchange with Senator Bernie Sanders was even more direct. Sanders cited more than 40 scientific studies across seven countries involving 5 million people that found no link between vaccines and autism. Nevertheless, he noted, the CDC website currently publishes false information suggesting otherwise. He asked Schwartz whether she agreed with the existing scientific evidence.
She declined to say.
Instead, Schwartz pledged to “take a look” at a memo from three senior health officials that recommends gutting the childhood vaccine schedule based on selective comparisons to Denmark. The memo urges the U.S. to drop universal recommendations for 17 childhood vaccines, including hepatitis A and B, meningococcal disease, and influenza. Schwartz said she would need to study whether comparing America to a country with a population the size of Wisconsin makes sense.
“She could not bring herself to say the words, ‘I will not harm children,’” one committee aide said after the hearing. “We’ve now set the bar so low that it’s a tripping hazard in hell.”
The nominee assured the panel she did not believe the president or the secretary would ever ask her to implement policies that are unscientific and harmful. Senator Sanders observed that the administration had already done exactly that, and Schwartz offered no reply.
