The White House appears ready to announce its pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Heidi Overton is expected to be President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the agency, according to a source close to the situation.
The decision comes about three months after the resignation of Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s first FDA commissioner.
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Overton currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. She previously served in the first Trump administration before joining the America First Policy Institute think tank.
She is board-certified in public health and preventive medicine.
Overton has taken positions that align with some Trump administration policies. She has written that people can oppose vaccine mandates without opposing vaccines more broadly. She also opposes abortion rights.
She also voiced support for the Trump administration’s changes to the vaccine schedule, which now recommends separate timing for measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations for infants.
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“You should put this into your state law so that when parents go to enroll their kids in school, they do not have to meet some of the requirements for the vaccines that are no longer recommended for all children,” she said.
