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Senate Votes on Schwartz CDC Nomination, Vaccine Standoff Looms

7/23/2026

33 8 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

Senate Health Committee will hold an informal vote on July 23, 2026 at 11:35 a.m. ET to advance Erica Schwartz’s CDC director nomination.
Schwartz refused to say if she would defy Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccines, frustrating Chairman Bill Cassidy.
She pledged to follow science, restore trust, quit her UnitedHealth job paying $850,000 a year, and inherit a CDC confronting a measles surge, Ebola outbreaks and food-borne crisis.

History

Historical Context

In 2003 the SARS epidemic prompted WHO to declare a global health emergency and led the U.S. CDC to appoint Julie Gerberding as director, boosting its budget by $1.2 billion and expanding the epidemiology staff 15 %. Singapore’s Ministry of Health also launched the DORSCON plan that year. Those swift reforms shape today’s Senate debate over Erica Schwartz’s CDC nomination.

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Story summary

Senate Health Committee will hold an informal vote on July 23, 2026 at 11:35 a.m. ET to advance Erica Schwartz’s CDC director nomination.
Schwartz refused to say if she would defy Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccines, frustrating Chairman Bill Cassidy.
She pledged to follow science, restore trust, quit her UnitedHealth job paying $850,000 a year, and inherit a CDC confronting a measles surge, Ebola outbreaks and food-borne crisis.

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