Well, well, well. If it isn’t the consequences of Sen. Bill Cassidy’s own actions. The Louisiana GOP senator, who never lets you forget he is also a doctor, is very concerned about the fact that a longtime anti-vaxx activist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., would stuff his vaccine advisory board with anti-vaxxers. How could this have happened?
You, Bill Cassidy. You’re the problem. It’s you.
Cassidy is sounding the alarm over Kennedy’s picks for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and calling for their first meeting, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, to be delayed. Earlier this month, Kennedy removed all 17 members of ACIP and, two days later, named eight new members, many of whom are anti-vaxx cranks.
Over on Monday night on X, Cassidy fretted about the new members lacking relevant experience in things like epidemiology and immunology, and that they “may even have a preconceived bias” against mRNA vaccines. He wants their meeting delayed until the CDC director is in place and the panel is “fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation—as required by law—including those with more direct relevant expertise.”
It’s rich for Cassidy to pretend it is surprising that Kennedy would do this, and stupid for Cassidy to pretend that Kennedy cares about any objections. Kennedy has literally made a career out of being an anti-vaxxer. He used the COVID-19 pandemic to raise his profile as an anti-vaxx activist, but that wasn’t a new position for Kennedy. From 2016 to 2023, Kennedy was the chair of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaxx organization. There’s even still a glowing biography of him on their website.
Kennedy stepped down from that role when he began his failed presidential run and was trying to soften his anti-vaxx image, but that was a fool’s errand, as Kennedy simply cannot stop talking about vaccine conspiracy theories. Coverage of his beliefs has been widely available, and Kennedy spent his confirmation hearing telling an absurd number of lies.
After performatively being on the fence about voting to confirm Kennedy, Cassidy declared that after his “intense conversations with Bobby,” he was ready to back him. He even still has the video of his pompous floor speech about it posted on his official Senate website.
Related |RFK Jr. spews even more anti-vax lies on Fox News
Since Kennedy’s confirmation, Cassidy has remained mum on plenty of anti-vaxx moves made by Kennedy. He didn’t have anything to say when Kennedy announced last month that the CDC would no longer be recommending the COVID-19 shot for children and healthy pregnant women. Cassidy couldn’t even be bothered to make a comment about the report HHS sent to Congress to justify the agency’s reversal on the COVID vaccine, despite that report being full of disinformation and relying on suspect studies. He didn’t call Kennedy out about his media hits where he went full anti-vaxx crank. But apparently Kennedy’s picks for ACIP are a bridge too far.
Cassidy likes to trot out his medical credentials, but he lost any credibility—as a senator and a doctor—when he voted to confirm RFK. Cassidy also thinks it is healthy and good to cut Medicare to pay for tax cuts for rich people, so let’s say his sense of what is helpful to ensure health is, uh, not great generally.
Cassidy can furrow his brow and express his strong concerns all day, although Sen. Susan Collins might feel like he’s stealing her patented act. His concerns shouldn’t be treated as examples of his principled behavior. Cassidy was willing to throw his principles out the window to confirm a known anti-vaxx crank, and now we all reap the whirlwind.