Dr. Erica Schwartz, the first Black woman to lead the CDC, urges parents to trust the MMR vaccine

Dr. Erica Schwartz made history in August when the Senate confirmed her as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is the first Black woman to hold the job. This month she used a national stage to send parents a plain message about measles.

A clear message on measles

Speaking at a health conference on Oct. 7, Schwartz called the measles vaccine combination known as MMR "absolutely safe" and "absolutely effective" and told parents to talk with their children's doctors about it. She said the country is approaching 4,000 measles cases and that Mexico and Guatemala together have logged more than 45,000.

She pointed to vaccine hesitancy as a major driver and linked part of the drop in childhood shots to the pandemic years. Many families lost trust in vaccines then and children also missed the school settings where routine immunizations happen. Schwartz said the agency is working to separate worries about COVID-19 shots from the rest of the childhood schedule.

Who she is

Schwartz is a former deputy surgeon general and a retired Coast Guard officer. President Donald Trump nominated her in April and the Senate voted 51 to 44 to confirm her on Aug. 5. Her record includes years of running vaccination programs and responding to health crises for the government.

She took over an agency that had gone a year without an official director. Her predecessor was removed less than a month into the job after clashing with the health secretary over vaccine policy.

What the CDC plans

Schwartz said the agency wants to keep telling Americans directly that the MMR vaccine is safe while outbreaks spread across the Americas.