Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new cooking show isn’t the only big news out of the public health world this week. On Wednesday, Dr Erica Schwartz was confirmed by the US Senate as director ‌of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making her the first Black woman to hold the position. This is the first time in almost a year that the agency has had a permanent leader; the previous director, Susan Monarez, only lasted 29 days before she was ousted for butting heads with RFK about US vaccine policies. Translation: she was a little too keen on following accepted science for the Trump administration.

So is Schwartz an RFK-approved vaccine skeptic who thinks you can cure cancer by praying to trees? Surprisingly: no. Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, actually has government experience and a public health background. During her confirmation hearing in July, she walked a careful tightrope when asked about her stance towards vaccines. Schwartz said she “will never betray the science” but also dodged questions about how she would handle pressure from Kennedy.

But don’t breathe a sigh of relief quite yet. During that same confirmation hearing, Schwartz made some chilling remarks about abortion surveillance when quizzed on the issue by Missouri senator Josh Hawley, an anti-abortion lawmaker who wants to ban the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide.

“The CDC collects data on abortions that are committed in the United States of America through a system called the Abortion Reporting System,” Hawley said when asking Schwartz if she would commit to collecting detailed data on abortions. “This system is voluntary, and so a number of states, not coincidentally large blue states, do not turn over any data, so that it’s difficult to get a picture of just how many abortions and under what circumstances are committed in this country. We do know the numbers are going, way up.”

“Senator, you have my commitment,” Schwartz replied. “Abortion surveillance is absolutely a........

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