Overton Tells Senate Panel MMR Vaccine Is Not Lethal, Backs FDA Science as Confirmation Fight Centers on Abortion Pill
核心洞察
Dr. Heidi Overton, Trump's nominee to lead the FDA, told the Senate HELP Committee that the MMR vaccine is not lethal, safe and effective, breaking with the president's prior claim.
Committee chairman Bill Cassidy pressed Overton on her role in Trump's vaccine executive order, which seeks to split the MMR vaccine into separate shots at separate visits.
Overton's confirmation hearing also focused on mifepristone access, with Cassidy pushing the FDA to reverse a Biden-era rule allowing telemedicine prescribing and mail delivery.
Dr. Heidi Overton, President Trump's nominee to lead the US Food and Drug Administration (搜索), told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday that the measles (搜索), mumps and rubella vaccine is "not lethal," directly contradicting a claim Trump made while signing an executive order on vaccines in August. Overton said every vaccine on the US market is "safe and effective according to the FDA," and described the MMR vaccine as "our best tool right now in the public health response to the measles outbreak."
The exchange came during the first round of questions from HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a Republican physician from Louisiana, who asked whether any vaccines currently on the US market are unsafe. Cassidy also asked what Overton would do if the president asked her to act against the science. She said she would give him her best advice and would follow the statutory requirements for the role of FDA commissioner regarding individual product determinations for safety and efficacy.
Vaccine Order Draws Scrutiny
Cassidy pressed Overton on her recent involvement in Trump's executive order on vaccines, which aims to scale back the number of vaccinations routinely recommended for children. The order prioritizes splitting the MMR vaccine into individual components given at separate medical visits, an approach vaccination experts say would decrease uptake and worsen the nation's growing number of measles (搜索) cases. Overton stood behind the president as he introduced the order and spoke afterward about legal measures designed to force states to adopt the administration's policies.
Cassidy said Overton's participation called into question her commitment to sound science and children's health, writing that "that alone is almost disqualifying." He has also said he has strong concerns about her nomination, citing a lack of managerial experience for leading an agency already dealing with staffing and morale issues. Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who now leads the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, called Overton's alignment with the president's vaccine plans "fully disqualifying" and said the agency is "in crisis" after shedding thousands of employees, including food safety inspectors.
Mifepristone Access at the Center
The hearing also put abortion pill policy in focus. The FDA faces pressure from Republicans, including Cassidy, to tighten access to mifepristone. Cassidy has pushed the administration to reverse a Biden-era rule that allows mifepristone to be prescribed via telemedicine and sent through the mail. In a committee report published last month, he accused the makers of mifepristone of failing to meet legal responsibilities to ensure compliance with FDA safety regulations, particularly when the pills are sold online through third-party providers. At a January hearing, he called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and then-FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to complete a safety review both had promised during their confirmation hearings. In June, the FDA said it launched a new safety study on mifepristone.
Overton, a preventive medicine physician, previously served as chief policy officer at the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute (搜索), where she praised the Supreme Court's 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and authored a policy brief calling medication abortion "dangerous to women." Studies have shown the drug, even when taken at home, is safe and effective, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has cited decades of evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of abortion medications. One stated goal of Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation (搜索) document that has shaped many Trump administration policies, is to more tightly restrict access to mifepristone or revoke its FDA approval altogether. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said she will vote no, calling Overton "a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA."
Agency Scale and Staffing Losses
If confirmed, Overton would lead an agency with about 16,000 staffers and a roughly $7 billion annual budget, whose regulated products account for about 20 cents of every dollar spent by consumers. The FDA has lost more than 4,600 workers since 2024 under the administration's reduction-in-force cuts, according to Office of Personnel Management data. The agency has spent much of the summer responding to foodborne illness outbreaks and recalls, including a cyclospora (搜索) outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce that sickened more than 12,000 people across multiple states. The outbreak raised questions about how quickly the FDA can trace contaminated food to its source and whether it has enough staff to respond.
Dr. Stephen Ostroff, a former acting FDA commissioner, said food safety will be another major issue awaiting her. "After the experience of the past 18 months, it's very important to restore public and industry confidence that decisions being made by FDA, including those by leadership, are science-based, transparent and consistent," Ostroff said.
Background and Qualifications
Overton, 37, graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and was a surgical resident at Johns Hopkins University (搜索), according to her LinkedIn profile. She is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine, according to the American Board of Medical Specialties, and completed a Ph.D. in clinical investigation at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joined Trump's first administration as a White House fellow on the Domestic Policy Council during the Covid-19 pandemic and later served as deputy assistant for domestic policy in the second term, overseeing health initiatives. At 37, she would be one of the youngest people ever to lead the FDA.
Dorit Reiss, a professor of law and vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law San Francisco, said Overton does not appear to have expertise in clinical trials, managing an agency or any of the products the FDA regulates. "It's reasonable for an administration to want someone sympathetic to their views, but FDA commissioner is a hard job that requires the ability to manage a large and complex agency that does important work," Reiss said. Art Caplan, head of the medical ethics division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said Overton's views on abortion appear to align with Cassidy's.
Overton has also disclosed that she lives with type 1 diabetes (搜索), an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks its own insulin-producing cells (搜索) in the pancreas. A number of cell therapies are in development to treat and potentially reverse the condition, but progress has been hampered by a backlog of cell and gene therapies at the FDA. As head of the agency, Overton would be positioned to streamline the process for biotech companies working on new therapies.
The agency has been without a permanent commissioner since Makary resigned in May, in part over the administration's decision to authorize several fruit-flavored vapes for adults. Kyle Diamantas, the acting commissioner who had been the agency's deputy commissioner for food, repeatedly turned down the position, even when asked directly by Trump, according to a senior administration official. An op-ed published in Stat by two former FDA commissioners called Overton "the right pick in a difficult moment," saying she "has hard work to do but has demonstrated the capacity to be that leader." White House spokesman Kush Desai said Overton "will ensure that policymaking is guided solely by Gold Standard Science at the FDA."