Schwartz recognizes CDC strife in first talks with staff

Schwartz recognizes CDC strife in first talks with staff

Erica Schwartz, the newly confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), acknowledged the agency she is now tasked with leading faces an uphill battle in terms of morale in her first conversation with staffers.

Schwartz was confirmed after roughly a year of the CDC lacking official leadership, former CDC Director Susan Monarez having been fired after less than a month. She inherits leadership over an agency that saw massive layoffs last year as well as a fatal shooting at its headquarters in Atlanta.

In a recording of an all-staff meeting obtained by The Hill, Schwartz acknowledged that morale within the agency is struggling .

“I am here asking you to give me the benefit of the doubt and to work with me as I go through our listening sessions to help me rebuild the trust that may have been lost,” Schwartz said when asked for her plans to improve staffer morale.

“In order to build morale, I think the fundamental thing that I have to work on with all of you is to help you understand that I want to earn your trust, and that I will do what I need to do to earn your trust,” she added.

Another staffer asked Schwartz what she believed should be improved or rebuilt at the CDC.

“You guys are feeling this weight, and I’m so sorry for that. I’m sorry that you have to live under this extreme psychological unsafety, and I apologize for that,” Schwartz said, noting one staffer had shared that they are nervous to ask questions due to a fear of being reprimanded.

Several staffers at the CDC were concerned with how Schwartz planned to handle vaccine policy , in light of the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) being disbanded by a federal judge earlier this year and President Trump’s executive order to split up the MMR vaccine and reduce the number of childhood immunizations.

Schwartz said she would work to ensure the CDC had input in implementing Trump’s executive order.

“My understanding — we are going to be looking at that executive order. Does it make sense? What are the pieces that we like? What are the pieces that we don’t like? And then 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,” said Schwartz.

Welcome to The Hill’s Healthcare newsletter , we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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