FDA Nominee Overton Affirms Vaccine Safety at Heated Confirmation Hearing

Dr. Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the US Food and Drug Administration, told senators on Thursday that every vaccine on the American market is safe and effective, as the health committee's Republican chairman pressed her on immunization policy at her confirmation hearing.

Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who chairs the Senate health committee, opened the hearing by asking Overton to affirm the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and to keep politics out of the agency's decisions. He criticized her for standing behind Trump when the president signed an executive order that would break up the childhood vaccine schedule into more doses, a move opposed by physicians' groups and vaccine makers. Cassidy said the order rested on "zero scientific evidence" and would raise costs for families.

Noting Overton's presence when Trump described the MMR shot as "potentially quite lethal", Cassidy asked whether she would break with the president's characterization at a time when the country is experiencing its worst measles outbreak in decades amid declining vaccination rates. Overton affirmed the vaccine's safety. "The MMR vaccine is not lethal," she said, adding that it is safe and effective and that all vaccines on the US market meet that standard according to the FDA.

Trump nominated Overton, a White House policy aide, in August, turning to an "America First" ally to steady an agency shaken by staff losses, low morale and disputes over vaccines, the abortion pill and drug approvals. If confirmed, she would take over an FDA that has lost more than 3,000 staff over the past year, including division heads, and faces pressure to rebuild confidence among industry and public-health groups. Overton is a preventive medicine physician and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and previously worked at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

Her anti-abortion views drew scrutiny from Democrats and opposition from abortion-rights advocates. Overton had called the Supreme Court's 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade "a huge victory for life." Senator Patty Murray of Washington repeatedly pressed her on whether she personally agreed that the abortion pill mifepristone is safe and effective. Overton declined to answer directly, saying her job would be to abide by statutory standards for safety and efficacy. "I know that it has met the safety and efficacy standard according to the FDA review," she said.

Murray said Overton had published an article three years ago describing medication abortion as dangerous to women, calling it "alarming" that a nominee would contradict decades of scientific evidence. Overton said she had always been driven by data. Murray also asked whether an intrauterine device is birth control rather than an abortion. Overton twice declined to answer directly, saying she would be "fully briefed" on the agency's prior decisions if confirmed. Murray called the non-answer "outrageous."

If confirmed, Overton would inherit an FDA review of mifepristone that abortion-rights groups say is politically motivated and that could lead to tighter restrictions on a drug used by millions of women since its US approval 26 years ago. The agency faces an October 7 deadline to update a federal court on its progress.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine pressed Overton on the FDA's August authorization of several new flavored nicotine pouches and vapes, calling it a "terrible decision" that could reverse progress in cutting youth e-cigarette use. Overton did not disavow the approvals, saying career FDA staff had recommended them because many adults who quit smoking use flavored products. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut alleged political interference, saying tobacco company Reynolds donated $8 million to the president days before a rule change. Overton rejected "the framing of that question."