WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s pick to oversee preparedness and response to public health emergencies and disasters has questioned the use of the hepatitis B vaccine in infants and raised the disproven link between vaccines and autism in past comments reviewed by STAT.
Those comments by Sean Kaufman, nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, are part of an undercurrent of vaccine skepticism among some high-ranking Department of Health and Human Services officials under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — despite efforts from White House officials to steer the conversation away from vaccines.
They could also set up a clash with Senate health leader Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who will chair Kaufman’s confirmation hearing next week. Cassidy has opposed some of the more aggressive vaccine policy changes heralded by Kennedy, including speaking out against delaying the hepatitis B shot, citing his experience as a liver doctor treating patients with the illness.
But Cassidy backed Kennedy’s confirmation, despite his open discomfort with vaccine skepticism. In May, Cassidy lost his reelection bid after Kennedy and President Trump publicly accused him of stymying their Make America Healthy Again agenda.
