Trump Names Texas’ Top Public Health Official as CDC Chief Medical Officer

WASHINGTON, DC — Dr. Jennifer Shuford, head of Texas’ public health agency, has been appointed to serve as chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

President Donald Trump included Shuford among a slate of proposed leaders for the federal agency, Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday. 

Trump’s other executive appointments include: Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director, Sean Slovenski as the CDC deputy director and chief operating officer, and Dr. Sara Brenner as senior counselor for public health to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The U.S. Senate has to approve Schwartz’s nomination before she can step in, but Shuford won’t have to as chief medical officer. Shuford, who serves as commissioner at the Texas Department of State Health Service, has not yet given the agency a timeline of her departure, according to spokesperson Chris Van Deusen. She reports to the Health and Human Services Commission, which has not responded to requests for comment. 

Trump cited his nominations’ collective “knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees” which he said would “restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC.”

Some of the agency’s top leaders have left the CDC over changes implemented by Kennedy, including to the childhood vaccine schedule recommendations. 

Shuford was an infectious disease physician based in Austin before joining the DSHS in 2017. She currently serves on the DSHS Preventive Medicine and Public Health Residency Program and is a member of Travis County Medical Society, Texas Medical Association, and Infectious Disease Society of America. 

Before stepping in as a commissioner in 2022, Shuford served as the chief state epidemiologist at the health department and was credited with supporting the state’s public health response through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Debra Houry left the position of CDC’s chief medical officer last August due to a disagreement over Kennedy’s leadership.

While the mainstream media has largely criticized Kennedy as an “anti-vaxxer,” he has also had support from a growing segment of the population for overhauling a public-health infrastructure that had lost credibility and trust after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kennedy has expressed the benefit of vaccines but has insisted we need better studies — ones not funded by pharmaceutical companies — to explore potential side effects, particularly after the explosion of autism in recent decades.