Public Health Experts for Nina Schwalbe

We, the undersigned academics, researchers, and practitioners in public health and related fields, write to support Nina Schwalbe as the Democratic candidate for New York's 12th Congressional District. The United States faces several urgent public health challenges that demand scientific expertise and experienced leadership in Congress. These are issues we study for a living, and we believe this moment calls for a representative who understands them.

The challenges facing American public health are urgent and interconnected. The childhood immunization schedule has been overhauled, with the removal of universal recommendations for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and rotavirus vaccines—vaccines that have prevented nearly 2 million hospitalizations and more than 90,000 deaths in the United States in recent decades. The United States is set to lose its measles elimination status, a generational achievement earned in 2000 after decades of sustained public health efforts. In 2025, the country recorded 2,267 measles cases, the highest in a century. The outbreak has continued in 2026. The country's withdrawal from the WHO and parts of the United Nations has further weakened the global infrastructure that helps prevent disease from reaching American shores. Navigating these challenges requires representatives who can evaluate the science and understand what is at stake.

Nina Schwalbe has spent four decades working at the intersection where science, policy, and making systems work under pressure converge. She holds a PhD in public health, has managed multi-billion-dollar vaccine programs for UNICEF and the United States government—including as the founding director of USAID's COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Delivery Initiative, which delivered approximately 500 million vaccines to low- and middle-income countries—and has advised New York City and governments around the world on their pandemic responses. She is not a politician who has adopted a health agenda, but a public health professional whose career has led her to this moment. If elected, she would be the only Democrat in Congress who holds a doctoral degree in public health, bringing the ability to read the science, interrogate the agencies, and make evidence-informed decisions.

The case for Nina Schwalbe rests on what this moment demands. Americans consistently place significant trust in scientists to act in the public interest; sending her to Congress is an opportunity to put that trust to work.