(Bloomberg) — The new director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told agency employees that she wants them to feel safe and not fear retributions for honest conversations, according to a recording of the meeting heard by Bloomberg News.
“I’m so sorry that you have to live under this extreme psychological unsafety,” Director Erica Schwartz said in her first address to the entire staff since starting as director.
The Atlanta-based public health agency has been thrown into chaos under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It has lost thousands of career employees and was the target of a shooting when a gunman, motivated by Covid vaccine misinformation, fired hundreds of rounds into the campus last year.
Schwartz’s comments came in response to a question from a staff member who expressed concern over retribution for speaking up about the fear employees have felt following the turmoil at the agency.
“I’m hoping that you could hold us accountable as your leaders,” Schwartz said. “Maybe three months from now, you can say we feel a little bit better. We feel that we can trust our leaders. We feel that we can speak freely. We feel that we may not always agree, but we feel like we are one team.”
Schwartz is the first permanent director in a year since Kennedy fired Susan Monarez, the previous leader, after a clash over vaccine policy.
“Dr. Schwartz was appointed to provide a steady, guiding hand to the agency, and today, less than one week into the job, she demonstrated that she is firmly in command and ready to lead,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in a statement.
Schwartz’s hourlong meeting Wednesday included prepared remarks where she outlined her priorities for the agency, and then held a question-and-answer session where employees were able to address her and other senior leaders.
She said she feels “very comfortable and very confident” in “speaking truth to power” with Kennedy after having a few meetings with him since starting in the position.
Kennedy’s tenure has been marked with multiple attempts to remake immunization guidelines in the US, with many moves tied up in court. Earlier this month, the Trump administration took renewed aim at longstanding vaccine guidance with an executive order that asked states to revamp childhood immunization recommendations and split up the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots.
Schwartz said the CDC is a member of the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, which is charged with looking at the immunization schedule in the executive order. She said the group hasn’t yet met, but will examine the order to offer recommendations to the CDC’s key vaccine panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP.
ACIP hasn’t met since a federal judge paused its activities after Kennedy fired the previous panel and replaced its members with many vaccine critics.
The task force will not replace ACIP, Schwartz said. In the interim, the task force will evaluate the Trump administration’s executive order and eventually offer a “body of information” for ACIP to use in its recommendations. ACIP decides which vaccines are covered by insurance or offered for free under federal programs.
During her confirmation hearing, senators pressed Schwartz on whether she would resist political pressure to promote anti-vaccine views. Senators also tried to pin down whether Schwartz would have hiring and firing power at the agency without political interference. She did not give a yes-or-no answer.
“I absolutely believe that vaccines are safe and effective,” Schwartz told the CDC employees Wednesday. “I personally have given thousands of vaccines.”