- Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy — who was the deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — was blasted for criticizing the Trump administration’s new vaccine guidance.
- “Remember that time you voted to confirm a committed lifelong antivaxxer as HHS Secretary?” Neil Stone, an infectious diseases doctor, quickly responded to Cassidy online.
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday significantly altering federal guidance on childhood vaccines, reducing recommended core shots to 11 and calling for splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate doses. Sen. Cassidy, a doctor, strongly condemned the executive order, emphasizing that vaccines are safe and do not cause autism.
- Cassidy faced severe backlash for his statement. An X account called Republicans against Trump wrote: “You voted for RFK Jr. despite knowing full well he’s an anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist crank…You own this mess.”
- Cassidy, who practiced medicine for several decades before his election to the Senate in 2014, announced that he would support Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, saying he had considered the matter “exhaustively” and that he had been provided certain assurances about the future of vaccine policy.
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