FDA nominee Heidi Overton affirms long-established vaccines are safe amid White House push to change childhood schedule

Dr. Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, told the Senate Health Committee that vaccines currently on the U.S. market have been determined to be safe and effective. She explicitly included the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine when making that statement.

Overton previously stood beside the president when he said the combined MMR vaccine could be "quite lethal." That comment is described in the record as false. Committee chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, himself a physician, pressed Overton to reject the president's statement and to confirm she would uphold vaccine safety standards if confirmed.

Overton affirmed the safety of FDA-approved vaccines and said she would follow the statutory requirements tied to the FDA commissioner role. She told senators she would give the president her best advice, but when asked directly later whether the president was wrong about the MMR vaccine she declined to explicitly say so. Related policy fights she'd inherit If confirmed, Overton would take charge of several controversial agency projects that were highlighted during the hearing:

• A safety review of mifepristone, the country's principal abortion pill, which the FDA approved in 2000 and has repeatedly affirmed as safe while expanding access, including allowing mail delivery.
• New rules that ease the path for flavored electronic cigarettes to reach the market, reversing earlier agency restrictions intended to reduce youth appeal.

Overton's prior statements and the mifepristone question While working at the America First Policy Institute, Overton called the FDA decision to allow mail delivery of mifepristone "dangerous to women" and described it as "chemical abortion on demand." At the hearing she said the drug "has met the safety and efficacy determinations of the FDA" and declined to prejudge the ongoing safety review ordered by the administration.

Sen. Cassidy pressed Overton for concrete commitments that political directions would not override science-based agency decisions, referencing past nominees who gave guarantees and later did not keep them. Overton's answers were positioned to reassure skeptical senators, but she stopped short of directly contradicting the president on the MMR comment.

Overton affirmed the safety of FDA-approved vaccines and recognized existing FDA determinations on mifepristone, while insisting she will operate under statutory requirements as commissioner. She avoided an explicit rebuke of the president's false MMR claim and signaled she will not prejudge the agency's review of the abortion pill. If confirmed, she will lead the FDA through contentious reviews on vaccines, abortion medications, and e-cigarette policy.