President Donald Trump nominated Erica Schwartz to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 16. The agency currently operates without a permanent director.

Of the CDC's 23 centers, institutes, and offices, 10 have permanent leadership while 11 are led by acting officials. The position for the National Center for Health Statistics director remains vacant.

Daniel Jernigan, former director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, commented on the situation. "There's no incentive to put a new CDC director in place because you can continue just dismantling it, sidelining it, or changing it however you want," Jernigan said. He added, "Once he puts [Schwartz] in, all eyes will be on how she's treated." Jernigan resigned after former CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired by Trump.

During a recent all-hands meeting, Sean Slovenski, principal deputy director and chief operating officer of the CDC, addressed the prevalence of temporary leadership. "I've never seen such a plethora of acting roles in my life," Slovenski said. He stated, "You're proud to go in there and help, but it never feels like a place you can actually nest and call home." Slovenski added, "And that also is a detractor from moving forward."

The CDC lost a quarter of its staff during reductions in force last year. The agency has not received authorization to hire many new employees. Jay Bhattacharya is listed on the CDC website as performing the delegable duties of the director. According to former employees, all full-time staff of the Office of Minority Health were fired. The agency is managing responses to hantavirus, Ebola outbreaks, and new world screwworm, and is working to prevent outbreaks during the ongoing World Cup.

Job postings recently went live for several center director positions, including one for the NCEZID director that closes on July 9. Other advertised positions include those for NCHHSTP, PHIC, OPHDST, and NCIRD. Christopher Braden is the acting director of NCEZID. Brandi Limbago recently stepped down as acting director of NCIRD, and Rebecca Greco Kone is now listed as the acting director for NCIRD. Bhattacharya blocked the publication of a COVID vaccine effectiveness paper in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; the paper was recently published in JAMA Network Open.