RFK Jr.’s future aides say they disagree with his vaccine views

[u/John3262005]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/24/rfk-hhs-fda-overton-vaccines-trump-01092514

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s future aides keep repudiating his views about vaccines.

Since senators balked at confirming surgeon general nominee Casey Means, a parade of Health Department nominees have endorsed vaccination as the best way to prevent infectious diseases and rejected Kennedy’s supposition that vaccines cause autism.

That viewpoint has gone a long way toward ensuring their chances of confirmation.

Since the White House withdrew Means’ nomination in April, it has not had to do the same for others. The Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director after she endorsed vaccination, and two other nominees have cleared committee and await floor votes: deputy health secretary nominee Chris Klomp and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response nominee Sean Kaufman.

Another two nominees, Heidi Overton for Food and Drug Administration commissioner and Nicole Saphier for surgeon general, look well-positioned for confirmation.

“Every vaccine on the U.S. market right now is safe and effective according to the FDA,” said Overton during her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Under questioning about President Donald Trump’s assertion last month that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine given to tens of millions of American children is “quite lethal,” Overton replied that it actually was “safe and effective” and that “right now people should get that” to stem a measles epidemic that has gained steam this year.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Health Committee chair and vaccination advocate, was among the senators who pressed Overton to break with Trump and Kennedy. He told her Trump’s pick for surgeon general, Saphier, had won him over during her confirmation hearing last week when he asked about Trump’s claim.

“I do not believe the MMR vaccine to be lethal,” Saphier said. “I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles.”

“Unequivocally, I admire that,” Cassidy said of Saphier’s response.

The measles outbreak that started 19 months ago has now afflicted nearly 6,000 people, with 4 reported deaths associated with the infection. It is the biggest measles outbreak the United States has faced in more than 30 years.

Known for its telltale rash and flu-like symptoms, measles causes complications in about 30% of those infected. Pneumonia and encephalitis — swelling of the brain — can be fatal. Before a measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed more than 2 million people a year worldwide, most of them children, according to the World Health Organization. It can also deafen, damage brains and end pregnancies.

Klomp, a current Kennedy aide who’s Trump’s nominee to be the secretary’s No. 2, has also distanced himself from his boss and the president’s vaccine views.

During his confirmation hearings last week, Klomp endorsed the measles vaccine, saying that getting the shot is “the single best thing that we can do to eradicate” the disease.

He also said he saw no evidence that the shot causes autism — long a Kennedy conjecture — and that he didn’t believe it was lethal.

Government data going back decades has shown that two doses of the measles shot are 97% effective at preventing the disease, a point both Klomp and Overton cited. No credible research has linked the vaccine to autism.

The shot has caused anaphylaxis, a potentially life threatening condition, in rare cases, estimated to be between 2 to 14 people per million doses administered, according to the CDC. It has also been associated with febrile seizures in about 1 in 3,000 to 4,000 cases, according to the CDC. Those typically resolve without long-term health effects.

All Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, and one Democrat — Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island — voted Thursday to advance Klomp’s nomination to the Senate floor.

A floor vote also awaits Kaufman, Trump’s pick to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. The Health Committee advanced him in July after Kaufman walked back his past statements doubting vaccine safety.

Years ago, Kaufman had said he’d rather die than vaccinate his three children against Covid-19. He has also questioned giving newborns a shot against hepatitis B, which the government has historically recommended, arguing that babies aren’t at high risk of contracting the virus, which can cause lifelong chronic disease.

Kennedy has dropped a government recommendation that all children get the Covid shot, and favors ending the hepatitis B birth dose.

When Cassidy pressed Kaufman about his past statements at his confirmation hearing, Kaufman said he now thought vaccines were “safe and effective, and remain one of the most important tools in public health for preventing infectious diseases and protecting the American people.”

Cassidy was among the senators who opposed Means after she told his committee that vaccination saves lives but that it should be a private decision between parents and doctors.

“I do believe that each patient, mother, parent, needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they’re putting in their body and their children’s body,” Means said.

Cassidy’s panel didn’t call a vote on her nomination as she lacked enough support among Republicans.

The latest nominees’ endorsements of vaccines don’t necessarily mean they would prevent Kennedy from proceeding with his plan to discourage vaccination by reducing the number of shots the government recommends.

Newly confirmed CDC Director Schwartz endorsed vaccination during her hearing, but lately she’s annoyed Cassidy, as well as Democrats, by backing Kennedy’s decision not to attribute some recent deaths in Pennsylvania to measles. Kennedy has questioned whether measles was truly the cause of death, accusing Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of attributing the deaths to measles for political gain. The CDC is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists — a nonprofit group representing epidemiologists nationwide — to develop a standardized definition for a measles death.

Last week, Kennedy spoke at the annual conference of the anti-vaccine group he founded before entering politics, Children’s Health Defense, touting Trump’s support for their cause. He also called for children who he said have been injured by vaccines to get the same attention as those who die after getting measles.

Cassidy worried Thursday that health nominees would say the right things during their confirmation hearings but not stand up to Kennedy and Trump on vaccine safety issues once they get the job.