Tag: vaccines

A week after Erica Schwartz took the helm at the beleaguered US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Aug 12, she convened an all-staff meeting. Schwartz fielded questions from staff and pledged to advocate for the agency, which has been gutted through the loss of thousands of workers and steep funding cuts. She assured staff that she would not hesitate to disagree with her boss, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, who has presided over the reorganisation.

…Schwartz told CDC staff that she has met several times with Kennedy since being appointed. She felt comfortable working with him and “will continue to speak truth to power”, according to a recording of the hour-long session provided to The Lancet. “I will make sure that my disagreements are known”, she said, but “probably in private, not in front of the media”. [Continued here.]