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Key Republican Senator Says He Will Support Erica Schwartz for C.D.C. Director
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention won the support of a crucial Republican on Thursday after a page on the agency’s website about vaccines and autism was modified to address his objections.
The page still asserts that vaccines may be linked to autism — a claim for which there is no scientific evidence and which infuriated Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and the chairman of the Senate health committee, who is a physician. But the revised page now includes a fresh statement at the bottom saying scientists “have not identified the root causes” of the disorder.
The nominee, Dr. Erica Schwartz, voiced strong support for the safety and efficacy of vaccines in testimony before the panel last week. But she faced an intense grilling from Mr. Cassidy about whether she would stand up to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose ardent vaccine skepticism is of deep concern to the senator.
Until Thursday morning, Mr. Cassidy had declined to say whether he would vote to confirm Dr. Schwartz. In finally announcing his support for her, the senator referred to the changes to the C.D.C. website.
“As a sign of good faith, H.H.S. has now modified the C.D.C.’s autism and vaccines web page,” Mr. Cassidy said, referring to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. “There’s more to do to repair damage that has been done to the U.S. public health response, but this is a start.”
The committee, which met for a brief two minutes in public session on Thursday, was supposed to vote on Dr. Schwartz’s nomination then. But the vote was delayed until next week because of the absence of at least one other Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was tending to a family emergency.
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