New CDC director pledges to ‘speak truth’ about science

The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Erica Schwartz, said Wednesday the agency is prepared to handle a variety of disease outbreaks, despite internal concerns about drastic cuts to CDC staffing and programs.

Schwartz made the remarks in an internal meeting with CDC staff members. NBC News reviewed a transcript of the agencywide meeting, Schwartz’s first since she took the helm of the agency this month.

In a question-and-answer part of the event, a staffer expressed concern about the agency’s ability to continue the high level of detailed work necessary to address ongoing outbreaks such as measles and Ebola following a massive reduction in force.

About a quarter of the CDC’s workforce either have left the agency or were fired during President Donald Trump’s second term.

“The brain drain is fierce,” the staffer said, according to the transcript. “How are we going to hold up CDC’s image of being the gold standard when the back door and front door is wide open and people are leaving?”

Schwartz said that despite the turmoil, she thought the agency was doing “a remarkable job.”

“Can we do more? Certainly. We can do more. Will we be prepared for the next outbreak? I think we will be,” she said.

Schwartz is the CDC’s first permanent leader in a year. Susan Monarez was fired last summer after less than a month as director after she clashed with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Schwartz, who was deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, told employees she feels “very comfortable” dealing with Kennedy, adding that she has already had “three or four” meetings with him.

“But just know that I will continue to speak truth to power,” she said.

Schwartz has inherited the largest outbreak of measles in 35 years, with at least 2,566 confirmed cases across the country and the U.S. facing the loss of elimination status later this year.

During the meeting, Schwartz said she would be part of a vaccine task force that was established as part of Trump’s executive order to cut the number of contagious diseases children are protected against through vaccination. The task force, which hasn’t met yet, also includes representatives from the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Schwartz said it was her understanding that the task force isn’t designed to replace the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of independent advisers that makes recommendations to the CDC about which Americans should get vaccines and when. That includes childhood vaccinations.

Schwartz, who was deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, told staff members, “I absolutely believe that vaccines are safe and effective.”

A federal judge put the group’s work on hold after Kennedy fired its members, replacing them with his own handpicked advisers. ACIP meetings that had been scheduled this year haven’t happened “due to ongoing litigation,” according to ACIP’s website .

What the new task force is “trying to do in the interim, because we don’t know how long it’s going to take for this appeals decision to be made, is sort of looking at all of the possibilities regarding immunizations and patient-parent choice,” Schwartz said during the meeting. “When ACIP is reconstituted, we can have that body of information that we can share with ACIP, and ACIP can say ‘this is ridiculous’ or they can say ‘this is actually really good and we’ll use pieces of it.’”

Schwartz also sought to reassure staffers following the August 2025 shooting at the agency’s Atlanta campus, which killed a police officer.

A staffer who listened in on the meeting said Schwartz appeared to choke up after having heard staffers’ concerns about safety.

“What you’re describing is ‘Do we have a psychologically safe environment here within the CDC?’” Schwartz said. “That’s something that I’m striving to make sure, that people feel that within the walls of the CDC.”