WASHINGTON — Representative Tom Price, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Tuesday that science does not support the claim that vaccines cause autism — putting some distance between himself and his future boss on the issue.
Price, a Georgia congressman, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee. Much of the discussion focused on the Affordable Care Act and Medicare, as well as Price’s personal investments in health care companies, the dominant news stories around his nomination.
But Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey turned the hearing to vaccines and scientific controversies. Trump has met with multiple vaccine skeptics during his campaign and since his election. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of those skeptics, said after his meeting with Trump that the president would establish a vaccine safety commission. Trump’s aides later disputed that claim, though they did say he was considering creating a committee on autism.
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