Two of President Trump's nominees for key health roles faced a tense Senate hearing Wednesday, with both failing to adequately reassure lawmakers of their commitment to science.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) scrutinized Erica Schwartz, the nominee for CDC Director, and Sean Kaufman, nominated for Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
Schwartz, a highly qualified physician and lawyer, was expected to assure senators she would stand up to anti-vaccine rhetoric from her potential boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Instead, she repeatedly avoided direct questions. When pressed if she would resist unscientific directives, she replied, "I do not believe that the president or the secretary would ever do what you just mentioned."
Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, expressed deep frustration. "I felt like you were always trying not to answer my question, which was disappointing," Cassidy said.
Nominee Sean Kaufman faced even sharper criticism for past statements promoting debunked vaccine-autism links and opposing vaccine mandates. Senator Cassidy, a hepatologist, angrily confronted him about false claims regarding the hepatitis B vaccine, yelling, "Why would you repeat those damn lies?"
Kaufman's testimony on mRNA vaccine research was described as "incredulous" and "flabbergasting" by senators, as he simultaneously claimed to support more research while defending funding cuts to the technology.
The hearing highlighted growing concerns over the administration's commitment to established public health science.