Attack on the Vaccine by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (It’s easy to forget that the assertions of the Expert Committee to guide America’s vaccine policy have been avoided recently. Four months ago, his appointment of a health secretary was in serious danger. The decision vote appeared to be in the hands of one of the Republican senators: Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Cassidy, a doctor who stood out for vaccinating low-income children in his hometown, was on the verge of longtime vaccine conspiracyists. “I’ve been struggling with your nominations,” he told Kennedy at a January confirmation hearing.
Cassidy then fell into a cave.
In a speech explaining his decision on the Senator’s floor, Cassidy said he would vote to confirm Kennedy. Because he pulled many concessions from the candidates. “No changes,” said Kennedy of the CDC Committee reviewed this week. Since then, Cassidy has continued to give Kennedy the bounty of doubt. On Monday, after Kennedy rejected all 17 members of the Vaccine Advisory Committee, Cassidy posted to X that he was working with Kennedy to avoid being satisfied with “people who don’t know anything about the vaccine except for suspicion.”
The senators undoubtedly failed spectacularly. One new appointee, Robert Malone, has repeatedly spread misinformation about the vaccine (or what he likes to call “scientific opposition”). Another appointee, Vicky Pebsworth, is an executive of the National Wascine Information Center’s anti-Vax nonprofit. Cassidy may continue to insist that he is doing everything he can to stand up for the vaccine. But he already had a great chance to do so and he blew it. Now, along with other parts of America, he sees the country’s vaccine future rushing.
So far, the senator has not appeared to be interested in any kind of Mea Culpa due to his belief in Kennedy’s promises. On Thursday, I caught Cassidy as he rushed out of the Congressional Hearing Room. He was still reviewing the appointees, he told me and several other reporters gathered around him. As I chased him down the hallway and asked more questions, he said to me, “I will make statements, and I will stand those statements for myself.” Members of his staff dismissed me with “Thank you, thank you.” Cassidy staff have rejected repeated requests for interviews with the senator since their confirmation vote in January.
All GOP senators, except for Mitch McConnell, voted to confirm Kennedy. They all have to own the actions of the Health Secretary. However, Cassidy appears to be the Republican most concerned about Kennedy’s nomination, and there was plenty of reason to believe that doctors would vote for his conscience. In 2021, Cassidy was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Donald Trump on a charge of each of the fire after the Capitol riots. However, this time the senator has been reelection next year, facing a more Magazine-friendly challenger, but he was lined up at an angle.
Cassidy vowed to restrict Kennedy as he brought him to work. Vote a confirmation vote, Cassidy hinted that the two were in close communication and that Kennedy had asked for opinions on the employment decision. Two It is reportedly We had breakfast in March and discussed the Health Secretary’s plans to dramatically reshape the department. “Senator Cassidy talks regularly with Secretary Kennedy and thinks these conversations are much more productive when they are held privately rather than in the press headline,” a Cassidy spokesman wrote in an email. (A HHS spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)
At times it seemed as if Cassidy’s approach had any effect on the Health Secretary. During the outbreak of measles in Texas earlier this year, Kennedy raised questions based on the safety of the MMR vaccine. Cassidy posted to X in April after two unvaccinated children died. Cassidy did not call on Kennedy by name, but the Health Secretary appeared to have received the message. Later that day, Kennedy posted that the measles vaccine was the most effective way to stop the disease. (“I totally agree,” Cassidy replied.
All in mind, it’s a small victory. Despite Kennedy’s claim that he is not an anti-vaxxer, he clearly enacted an anti-vaccine agenda. Since it was confirmed, he pushed out the FDA’s top vaccine regulator and hired a sceptic fellow vaccine Investigate The links that are said to be between autism and shots, and I was asked Currently recommended by the CDC for the safety of childhood vaccinations. As my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote this week, “Whether he accepts it or not, he serves as the core goal of the anti-vaccine movement: he rolls and trusts access to vaccinations.”
The reality is that backchannel is so effective. Cassidy’s primary power is to call Kennedy before the Senate Health Committee, where he serves as chairman and demands Kennedy’s new appointees explain the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee. Cassidy might do that well. In February, he said Kennedy “comes to the committee quarterly if requested.” Kennedy appeared before Cassidy’s committee last month to answer questions about his efforts to launch a massive layoff at his agency. Some Republicans (and many Democrats) forced secretaries on those efforts, while others praised them. Cassidy, on his part, expressed concern about the indiscriminate reduction in Kennedy’s research program, but he was still primarily cautious. “I agree with Secretary Kennedy that HHS needs reform,” Cassidy said.
Even if he opposes it, the exchange of anger between the Health Secretary and the Senate Committee does not guarantee a change in policy. Lawmakers may try to act as government officials report to them, but if the candidate is already in work, they are limited in power. Technically, lawmakers can fire each cabinet member, but in American history, sitting cabinet members are not fire each and have not since been excluded from the office. The long and laborious confirmation process is assumed to be a breakwater against potentially dangerous candidates being placed in power. Cassidy and most of his Republican colleagues have already decided that Kennedy will not stop overseeing the largest division of the federal government through the budget. Now Kennedy is free to do whatever he wants – the Senator is cursed.
