Trump HHS Nominee Tied Hepatitis B Shot to Autism
SkimNews Take
Placing a vaccine-questioning figure in charge of emergency preparedness inverts that role's core logic, since rapid vaccine deployment has historically been the central tool of pandemic response.
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- Sean Kaufman, nominated by Trump to be Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, argued in a now-deleted May 2025 LinkedIn post that calling him an "antivaxxer" would make the reader a "pedophile" and linked the hepatitis B vaccine to rising autism cases — a link decades of research have disproven.
- Kaufman also called offering mRNA Covid-19 vaccines "reckless" and praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s push to rescind universal Covid-19 vaccine recommendations, calling the original recommendation "reckless."
- Kaufman has served as an expert witness in cases opposing vaccine mandates and in earlier LinkedIn posts described himself as a "father of three who would rather perish than have any one of his children receive an injection where the risks soundly outweigh the benefits" for Covid-19 shots.
- Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the Senate health committee, will lead Kaufman's joint confirmation hearing next week alongside CDC director nominee Erica Schwartz — his first HHS confirmation since losing his May reelection bid after Trump and Kennedy accused him of stymieing the MAHA agenda.
- Cassidy, a liver doctor, has publicly opposed delaying the hepatitis B vaccine for infants, clashing with a Kennedy-installed vaccine panel that voted last year to recommend most parents delay the newborn hepatitis B shot — a recommendation now on hold in federal court.
- If confirmed, Kaufman — co-founder of a biosafety consulting firm — would oversee the nation's emergency public-health countermeasures, including vaccines and personal protective equipment during crises.
- The progressive group Protect Our Care urged Cassidy to block the nomination, calling Kaufman a "science-denier" unfit to oversee the nation's emergency vaccine supply.
Why it matters: Kaufman's confirmation would place a vocal vaccine skeptic — one who has testified against mandates and called mRNA Covid shots "reckless" — in charge of the federal stockpile and vaccine distribution in the next pandemic. The Senate floor math now rests with Cassidy, the only Republican senator who is himself a physician and who has already broken with Kennedy over delaying the newborn hepatitis B shot, making this confirmation a direct test of MAHA's grip on HHS personnel policy.
