WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s decide to supervise preparedness and response to public well being emergencies and disasters has questioned using the hepatitis B vaccine in infants and raised the disproven hyperlink between vaccines and autism in previous feedback reviewed by STAT.
These feedback by Sean Kaufman, nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, are a part of an undercurrent of vaccine skepticism amongst some high-ranking Division of Well being and Human Companies officers underneath Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — regardless of efforts from White Home officers to steer the dialog away from vaccines.
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They might additionally arrange a conflict with Senate well being chief Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), who will chair Kaufman’s affirmation listening to subsequent week. Cassidy has opposed a number of the extra aggressive vaccine coverage modifications heralded by Kennedy, together with talking out in opposition to delaying the hepatitis B shot, citing his expertise as a liver physician treating sufferers with the sickness.
However Cassidy backed Kennedy’s affirmation, regardless of his open discomfort with vaccine skepticism. In Might, Cassidy misplaced his reelection bid after Kennedy and President Trump publicly accused him of stymying their Make America Wholesome Once more agenda.
Kaufman’s listening to, a joint look alongside the nominee for director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, Erica Schwartz, shall be Cassidy’s first for an HHS nominee since his loss. Cassidy, the White Home, and Kaufman didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Ought to Kaufman, co-founder of a biosafety consulting agency, be confirmed, he would oversee the nation’s countermeasures in a public well being disaster, which embody vaccines and private protecting gear.
In a now-deleted Might 2025 LinkedIn submit, Kaufman tells readers that in the event that they name him “an antivaxxer, then I’ll be pressured to name you a pedophile” earlier than happening to argue in opposition to giving infants the hepatitis B shot.
“And earlier than you dismiss all this as ‘antivaxxer nonsense,’ take into account this: autism,” he writes. He goes on to make the case that the hepatitis B vaccine could also be linked to a rise in autism circumstances.
A long time of analysis has not discovered a connection between vaccines and the prevalence of autism.
Utilizing rhetoric much like Kennedy and others within the vaccine skeptical motion, Kaufman additionally raised the query of whether or not vaccines are linked to an entire host of well being points.
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“Questions surrounding vaccine security — be it recombinant or mRNA platforms — are usually not simply hypothetical considerations however crucial points that demand trustworthy investigation,” he wrote within the 2025 LinkedIn submit. “We owe it to the general public, particularly to those that could have been unintentionally harmed, to maneuver past dismissive rhetoric and into clear, science-based discussions. The numerous will increase in autism, allergic reactions, and different well being points are usually not mere coincidences or artifacts of higher detection — they’re indicators that deserve our full consideration.”
He equally questioned giving hepatitis B pictures to infants in a Might 2025 video, downplaying the dangers of the virus as restricted to these partaking in dangerous sexual exercise or sharing needles. Whereas hepatitis B is primarily transmitted by way of sure dangerous behaviors, public well being consultants say infants can nonetheless be uncovered in different methods, and that giving the shot to newborns has helped curb mother-to-child transmission.
The progressive group Defend Our Care known as on Cassidy to dam Kaufman’s affirmation.
“There’s something very dangerous right here, and it’s letting a science-denier like Mr. Kaufman oversee the nation’s emergency provide of vaccines,” Brad Woodhouse, president of the group, advised STAT in an announcement.
Kaufman additionally known as providing mRNA Covid-19 vaccines “reckless,” questioning their security and effectiveness. He praised efforts by Kennedy to rescind common suggestions for Covid-19 vaccines. “I don’t assume it ever ought to have been [recommended] within the first place,” he mentioned.
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In separate LinkedIn posts from two and three years in the past which might be nonetheless public, Kaufman defended people who he mentioned have been fired from their jobs after rejecting Covid-19 vaccine mandates — it has been beforehand reported that Kaufman has served as an professional witness in circumstances opposing vaccine mandates — and mentioned he was censored for selling “the advantages of pure immunity.”
In a single submit, he described himself as a “father of three who would relatively perish than have any considered one of his kids obtain an injection the place the dangers soundly outweigh the advantages gained,” referring to Covid-19 pictures.
Final yr, a panel of vaccine consultants handpicked by Kennedy voted to suggest that the majority mother and father delay giving their kids the hepatitis B vaccine, resulting in outcry from public well being consultants who say that the implications will be devastating and deadly.
That advice is presently on maintain as a problem to Kennedy’s vaccine insurance policies makes its method by way of a federal courtroom. The panel has additionally raised questions in regards to the security of mRNA Covid vaccines, and Kennedy has pulled thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funding for the expertise.
