STAT58%
Key Senate panel backs Trump’s picks for CDC, pandemic preparedness 18%
By Chelsea Cirruzzo79%
7/30/2026, 7:17:10 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 7 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Begging the Question, and Recency Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 35.4% saturation with 193 hits. Analysis detected 355 faulty-reasoning hits from 545 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32.6% and a BS Rank of 18% (18,451 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 82.40% of the article peer group.
WASHINGTON — The Senate health committee approved two nominees for key health roles Thursday, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a pandemic preparedness leader, after Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) once again set aside his reservations to support Trump administration leadership picks.
The vote on Erica Schwartz for CDC director was approved by all Republicans and by Tim Kaine (D-Va.), with other Democrats opposed.
Sean Kaufman won support from all Republicans to be assistant secretary for preparedness and response (ASPR), and all Democrats were opposed.
Schwartz’s confirmation was all but assured after both Cassidy and Kaine expressed support.
But Kaufman’s fate had been more of a question mark, after Cassidy clashed with him during his confirmation hearing over his past remarks questioning vaccine safety, which were first reported by STAT.
But on Thursday, Cassidy said he would approve Kaufman.
“America is facing serious public health challenges,” Cassidy said, naming vaccine-preventable diseases and an Ebola outbreak in parts of Africa.
He said there’s a need to strengthen the nation’s pandemic preparedness.
Their nominations now move to the full Senate floor, where they are likely to be confirmed.
Echoing his decision to support Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. in February 2025, Cassidy once again relied on promises from officials at the Department of Health and Human Services to explain his vote for Kaufman.
He said he agreed to back Kaufman after HHS officials — Cassidy didn’t say who — agreed to unspecified personnel changes, and to a restriction that the ASPR leader not be involved in vaccine policy decisions.
Kennedy has broken some of the promises he apparently made to Cassidy to win his support — and it’s not clear why the Louisiana senator is choosing to trust him once again.
The broken promises include firing a panel of vaccine advisers and handpicking a number of replacements, including some vaccine skeptics.
HHS has also moved to unilaterally reduce the number of recommended pediatric vaccines, including delaying the hepatitis B birth dose, a move Cassidy has adamantly opposed.
That’s on top of changes Kennedy made to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website that reversed the agency’s stance that vaccines do not cause autism.
Last week, Cassidy said that HHS had agreed to revise the website, but, as of Thursday, it still raises unsupported questions about a possible link between shots and the disorder.
Cassidy criticized the minimal changes as “almost an insult to the American people” in a recent CNN interview and suggested Thursday that more adjustments would be coming.
“The administration is committed to continuing the work to remove vaccine misinformation from that website.
This is something again that I’ll pay close attention to,” he said Thursday.
The approvals are a win for President Trump and for Kennedy, whose department has been plagued by vacancies in key public health roles as the country confronts a number of public health crises, including measles outbreaks and a foodborne parasite.
Cassidy did say he could hold up future health nominees, though his time on Capitol Hill is limited.
He lost his reelection bid this year following public criticism from Trump and Kennedy, who blamed the senator for blocking their Make America Healthy Again agenda.
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