Trump public health nominees advance in Senate despite Democratic opposition over vaccines

The Senate health committee greenlit two of President Donald Trump’s top public health nominees after scrambling last week to garner enough support for them because of doubts about their willingness to promote vaccines.Dr. Erica Schwartz, Trump’s nominee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with Sean Kaufman, the nominee for a pandemic preparedness agency at the Health and Human Services Department, were each approved Thursday to advance to the full Senate for a vote.Schwartz was confirmed with a vote of 13 to 10, with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) being the only Democrat to join Republicans. Only Republicans voted for Kaufman, who advanced 12 to 11. Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who lost his reelection bid this spring in part because of clashes with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy, voted in support of both Schwartz and Kaufman.“Sometimes you don’t get the nominee that you’d like to have, but you get a nominee that you have to have if you’re going to address serious issues,” Cassidy said. Schwartz, who served as Trump’s deputy surgeon general from 2019 to 2021, is a conventional CDC pick with a long career in government public health services. She served in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps for 24 years before becoming the No. 2 in the surgeon general’s office. But during her rocky confirmation hearing on July 15, Schwartz received pushback from Democrats and Cassidy over whether she would stand up to Kennedy should he pressure her to make decisions on vaccine policy and promotion that could endanger public health.Schwartz’s predecessor, Susan Monarez, was fired by Kennedy last summer after less than a month in office for refusing to pre-approve reductions in the childhood vaccine schedule. The Senate health committee was scheduled to vote on Schwartz’s nomination last week but postponed the vote due to the absence of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who was away because of a family emergency. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the top Democrat on the committee, said that he could not support Schwartz despite her educational and public service background because he is not confident that she is capable of standing up to Kennedy. “We have a secretary of Health and Human Services who fosters and propagates conspiracy theories on vaccines and other important issues,” Sanders said. “And the question, I think, the big, big question before this committee: Are nominees going to be prepared to stand up to those conspiracy theories?”Kaufman, who will run the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response should he be confirmed by the full Senate, has come under tough scrutiny for past statements, including that he “hates the CDC” and casting doubt on mRNA vaccines. Cassidy said that he has received reassurances from the Trump administration that Kaufman and other senior HHS officials will rein in their promotion of what the senator called “the dangerous lie that vaccines are related to autism.”HOW THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL BECAME LAW: MEDICAID BATTLE INTENSIFIES“After multiple conversations with senior HHS officials, several actions have been taken and will be taken to address these concerns, including key personnel changes and better oversight to ensure that science, not ideology, is driving decision-making,” Cassidy said.Cassidy also said there will be “future leverage points for this committee over future appointees if these commitments are not kept.”