WASHINGTON — A Mountain Brook doctor, who President Donald Trump nominated to a key Health Department position, advanced out of a Senate committee Thursday, moving his nomination to the floor.
Trump tapped Dr. Brian Christine, a urologist at Urology Centers of Alabama and a GOP donor, to be the assistant secretary of health and human services, a deputy of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Christine’s qualifying views on vaccines were a hot-button issue during his nomination hearing earlier this month.
Christine described himself as a “main street doctor” when addressing senators during the hearing.
“The perspective that I will bring to the Department of Health and Human Services is a perspective shaped by a career spent in day-to-day patient care,” he said.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved his nomination during a meeting Thursday. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., introduced Christine during his nomination hearing, highlighting Christine’s “deep medical expertise, leadership experience, and a clear vision for reform.”
During the hearing, Tuberville asked Christine how we would restore trust in the U.S. healthcare system, how we would help Kennedy’s initiative to Make America Healthy Again, and how we would support rural healthcare.
Christine said that as an assistant secretary, he would work to address health care deserts in rural areas.
“We absolutely must encourage and must increase the number of primary care physicians, family practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists and obstetricians and primary care nurses…to help bridge this gap as well,” he said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, a physician, grilled Christine over his views on vaccines, asking him if he would be an “evangelist” for promoting vaccines, such as to treat measles. Christine’s potential boss, Kennedy, has long been a skeptic of vaccines.
“I believe that vaccinations are appropriate,” Christine said. “My child is vaccinated. I also believe very strongly that vaccines, like any kind of medical therapy, are individual, and of course, there are going to be inherent risks and benefits with any medical therapy.”
Cassidy interrupted his answer and pushed back. “There’s always risk, but there’s been a lot of emphasis upon the risk, but no emphasis upon the risk of not being vaccinated.”
GOP Senator Ashley Moody of Florida questioned Christine about his stance on gender-affirming care for minors.
“The way to treat them is not with chemicals and puberty blockers and hormones and surgeries that do irreversible damage,” Christine said. “The best way to treat them is with counseling, compassion and care. That’s what I recommend.”
When Christine’s nomination was announced in March, the Alabama Republican Party congratulated him in a post on X, calling him a “longtime Conservative grassroots activist.”
Christine’s practice previously advertised treating transgender men, the Wall Street Journal reported in March. Christine denied that he treated transgender patients.
If confirmed by the full Senate, Christine would oversee the nation’s uniformed public health service and the department’s policy directives, including on vaccines.