Debra Howry, the former CDC chief medical officer who resigned in protest of Kennedy’s political interference, told State News, “We saw what happened to Susan.” “She couldn’t make staffing or policy decisions. What’s changed? Kennedy hasn’t changed.”
“a disaster”
The Washington Post reports that amid the search for a new CDC director, some qualified candidates sought promises of autonomy in firing and hiring staff and keeping science separate from political influence. Those candidates were not selected, sources told the Post.
Trump announced Schwartz’s nomination in a social media post on Wednesday, calling him “a star”, and announced nominations for three other positions at the agency. “These highly respected doctors of medicine have the knowledge, experience, and top degrees to restore the gold standard of science at CDC,” he wrote.
Kennedy responded with a much more balanced message, writing: “I congratulate Dr. Schwartz and the new CDC leadership team. I look forward to working together to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at CDC so we can return it to its core mission and make America healthy again.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s close anti-vaccine ally and former personal attorney, Aaron Sirie, did not hold back, saying that Schwartz leadership at the CDC “would probably be a disaster.”
“Schwartz led the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine deployment and his long track record of directly issuing rights-crushing civilian and military vaccine mandates, including mandating the injection of smallpox, anthrax and flu vaccines into U.S. forces and disciplining those who refuse, demonstrates that he lacks the basic ethics and moral values to lead CDC,” Sirie wrote.
They concluded, “Given her prior promotion, let alone mandate, of nearly a dozen different vaccines, there is little expectation that she will impartially oversee CDC’s vaccine program…”.
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