Two nominees to lead public health at the Health and Human Services Department cleared a committee vote Thursday, moving them closer to being confirmed into the roles after extended talks between federal officials and senators about vaccine misinformation.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Thursday morning that he will support the nominations of Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Sean Kaufman, nominee to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. He said his decision came after multiple conversations with top HHS officials about removing claims about vaccines and autism from the CDC website, and making personnel changes at the agency.
HHS last week edited a claim on that website — saying there is not evidence that vaccines do not cause autism — in an apparent bid to assure the nominees would get through a committee vote. Cassidy said Thursday morning that discussions about the website are not over.
“While there have been changes to the CDC website, any assertion that there is a link between autism and vaccines is wrong. We don’t know what causes autism, but study after study shows that it is not vaccines,” he said. “The administration is committed to continuing the work to remove vaccine misinformation from that website. This is something, again, that I’ll pay close attention to as HHS nominees move through the confirmation process.”
