The Trump administration has picked Sean Kaufman to oversee preparedness and response to public health emergencies and disasters, placing a biosafety consultant with a record of vaccine skepticism one step closer to a powerful federal job.
The nomination matters now because Kaufman’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for next week, with Bill Cassidy set to chair it. Kaufman would be nominated as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the post that helps steer national planning for disasters and public health crises if the Senate approves him.
Kaufman is co-founder of a biosafety consulting firm, but the qualifications on paper are only part of the story. The role he could fill is built around readiness: in a crisis, it touches the stockpiles, response plans and countermeasures that determine how quickly the government can move when disease or disaster hits.
That is why his past comments are drawing attention. Reviews of his past remarks by STAT show that he questioned giving the hepatitis B vaccine to infants and repeated the discredited link between vaccines and autism. In a now-deleted May 2025 LinkedIn post, Kaufman wrote, “if they call me ‘an antivaxxer, then I’ll be forced to call you a pedophile,” added, “And before you dismiss all this as ‘antivaxxer nonsense,’ consider this: autism,” and said the hepatitis B vaccine may be linked to more autism cases.
He made similar arguments in a May 2025 video, questioning hepatitis B shots for infants and downplaying the disease as mainly a risk for people engaging in risky sexual activity or sharing needles. Decades of research has not found a connection between vaccines and autism, and that gap between the science and Kaufman’s public comments is now landing in front of the committee that will decide whether he is fit for an emergency post.
The hearing will also put him beside Erica Schwartz, the nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a joint appearance that gives Cassidy a clear chance to press on vaccines. Bill Cassidy has opposed delaying the hepatitis B shot and has cited his work as a liver doctor treating patients with hepatitis, so the question is not whether the topic will come up, but whether Kaufman’s answers can survive it. If the Senate wants a straightforward test of how seriously the Trump administration takes a public health emergency, this is it.
