After Website Tweak, Cassidy Says He'll Support CDC Nominee

After appearing frustrated by Erica Schwartz's answers last week when he repeatedly pressed her on whether, as CDC director, she'd stand up to her boss on whether vaccines cause autism, Sen. Bill Cassidy has decided to vote to confirm Erica Schwartz. The Republican chair of the Senate Health Committee, who had expressed indecision for days, on Thursday framed the reason for his support as his enduring belief in the importance of vaccines and his new faith that Schwartz agrees, Politico reports. If confirmed, she'd report to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic. Schwartz had testified that she'd follow the science, but Cassidy said what moved him is a change on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.

A disclaimer on the agency's "Autism and Vaccines" page had questioned the evidence behind the statement "vaccines do not cause autism." Cassidy said the page was modified after he objected, per the New York Times. As of Thursday evening, it says: "The claim 'vaccines do not cause autism' is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities." At the bottom, an addition says scientists "have not identified the root causes"" of autism. Cassidy, a physician, called the change a "good-faith effort" and said the government has "more to do to repair damage that has been done to the US public health response, but this is a start."





questioned the evidence behind the statement "vaccines do not cause autism." Schwartz, a career public-health official and former deputy surgeon general in Trump's first term, now faces a committee vote scheduled for late Thursday morning. Her confirmation fight has unfolded under the shadow of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic; Cassidy previously pressed her on whether she'd resist any anti-science pressure from him. If confirmed, Schwartz would become just the second Senate-approved CDC director of Trump's second term, after her short-lived predecessor was pushed out over a vaccine dispute with Kennedy.