President Trump’s nominee to lead the FDA, Heidi Overton, may have played a bigger role in cutting the childhood vaccine schedule than senators understood at her confirmation hearing. Semafor healthcare reporter David Lim joins host Miles Baker to break down his latest reporting on what drove the process and whether Overton was a true believer or a skilled executor of the president’s priorities.
We dig into the tension between Kennedy’s influence and Trump’s own long-standing interest in vaccines, why the narrative took hold that Overton was aligned with pharma, and why a proposal to split the MMR vaccine may be impractical in the real world. We also look at the one-vote Republican majority on the Senate HELP Committee, the swing votes of Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, the mifepristone question, and how the midterm elections could decide whether this nomination ever gets across the finish line.
Read David Lim’s reporting in Semafor:
Trump FDA nominee played key role in overhaul of childhood vaccine policy
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