Two Trump health nominees—Erica Schwartz for CDC director and Sean Kaufman for ASPR chief—faced a bruising Senate HELP Committee hearing Wednesday. Schwartz, a highly qualified physician with Navy and Coast Guard experience, entered with cautious optimism but refused to commit to resisting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine agenda. Kaufman, despite three decades in outbreak preparedness, carried baggage from past comments linking vaccines to autism and calling hepatitis B vaccine supporters "pedophiles."

Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) pressed Schwartz repeatedly on whether she would wield the same integrity as Susan Monarez, the prior CDC director fired after 29 days for refusing to rubber-stamp Kennedy's stacked vaccine panel. Schwartz dodged direct answers, saying only "the secretary absolutely will allow me to be the CDC director." Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) extracted a concession that vaccines don't cause autism, but Schwartz claimed ignorance of a CDC website falsely linking them and insisted the president and secretary would never demand unscientific policies. "Really?" Sanders replied. "Do you think that is the record?"

Schwartz also professed unawareness of DOGE cuts nearly destroying NIOSH, scaled-back food safety surveillance, and thwarted tobacco efforts. She supported withdrawing from WHO and qualified her backing of military flu mandates—recently repealed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, triggering a 300-case outbreak killing one recruit before restoration. The 2.5-hour hearing left senators doubting both nominees' willingness to uphold evidence-based public health.