Two nominees for senior US health posts in the Trump administration faced a difficult Senate HELP Committee hearing, amid concerns about their willingness to support evidence-based vaccine policy. Erica Schwartz, nominated to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was criticised for repeatedly failing to give direct answers, while Sean Kaufman faced scrutiny over past anti-vaccine statements; the hearing matters because both roles would shape US preparedness and public-health policy.

Schwartz has extensive medical, public-health, legal and military experience, but senators sought assurances that she would resist political interference from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dismissed the previous CDC director after 29 days. Kaufman, nominated to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, has around three decades of emergency-preparedness experience, yet was challenged over past claims linking vaccines to autism, support for “natural immunity”, opposition to mandates and comments about childhood vaccination.