Exclusive: Trump FDA nominee played key role in overhaul of childhood vaccine policy
Semafor · David Lim ·
Heidi Overton’s work on childhood schedule changes was absent from her nomination hearing.
The News
Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Food and Drug Administration, played a larger role in driving the process to reduce the number of vaccines the government recommends to children than emerged during her Senate confirmation last month, when Republican senators asked her whether she’d stand up to anti-vaccine voices in the administration.
An aide on the president’s Domestic Policy Council, Overton helped edit and craft a scientific justification that was used to underpin cutting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations from 17 to 11 vaccines in January, according to a senior administration official and three people familiar with the process.