WASHINGTON — Actions by a vaccine advisory panel hand-picked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are putting Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s reputation on Capitol Hill in a precarious position.
For 30 years, Republican Cassidy, once a physician at Baton Rouge’s charity hospital, advocated the safety and efficacy of vaccines to treat disease and save lives. During that same time, Kennedy raised doubts about these inoculations.
It was Cassidy, more than any other senator, who is responsible for confirming such a well-known anti-vaxxer to head the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which holds the reins to the nation’s vaccination program. Cassidy said he did so based upon Kennedy’s assurances that, as the nation’s health chief, he would not undermine federal vaccination programs — promises some say have been breached.
On Tuesday, Kennedy said he’d withdraw the $1.2 billion the U.S. uses for global immunization programs. Critics contend the move would endanger the lives of children around that world.
On Wednesday, Kennedy’s newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met for the first time. Earlier in June, Kennedy had fired all 17 sitting members and named eight new ones, some of whom have vaccine-skepticism histories.
Cassidy noted that few of Kennedy’s picks had the proper scientific backgrounds for their important ACIP roles and suggested postponing the meeting.
In opening Wednesday’s meeting, ACIP’s new chair Martin Kulldorff said, “Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine when making vaccination recommendations.”
The new group also released a statement: “We came to this meeting with no predetermined ideas and will make judgments as if we are treating for our own families.”
Among other decisions Thursday, ACIP set a new schedule for seasonal flu shots — provided they don’t contain the mercury-based preservative thimerosal — rolling back long-standing government policies. Vaccination skeptics suspect that thimerosal, which is included in only 4% of flu vaccines, causes autism despite dozens of studies saying it does not.
The committee also plans to review the childhood vaccine schedule.
The ACIP provides guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose decisions require the federal government to provide vaccines for low-income families and informs states on vaccination schedules for students.
Cassidy had nothing to say Friday about the panel’s actions.
But in a videotaped message welcoming Kennedy to a visit in Louisiana Friday, Cassidy said: “I thank you for coming, Bobby. And thank you particularly for going to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, an LSU institution studying nutrition. And I know how passionate you are — and I am — about having good nutrition to Make America Healthy Again.”
But many in the health care community feared ACIP’s decisions are a harbinger of the federal government’s embrace of Kennedy’s skepticism.
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Thursday criticized Kennedy’s AFIP and announced it would publish its own recommendations and schedules.
“What we heard in this meeting was really a false narrative that the current vaccine policies are flawed and that they need fixing,” Sean O’Leary, a physician who chairs the group’s Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a statement.
On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers say Kennedy took advantage of Cassidy.
In an April 18 party primary, Cassidy faces GOP challengers who contend he is not supportive enough of President Donald Trump. One of Cassidy’s big pluses for election to a third term is that, as chair of the powerful Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions committee, he helped Trump’s pick win confirmation.
When asked Tuesday if he felt duped by Kennedy, Cassidy said: “The agreement with Secretary Kennedy on the ACIP was about process, not about membership. So, I’ll just leave it at that.”
A couple hours later, during a House budget hearing, Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democratic pediatrician from Washington state, accused Kennedy of lying to Cassidy.
She noted that Cassidy had said Feb. 4 on the Senate floor that Kennedy would maintain the AFIP “without changes.”
“Did you lie to Sen. Cassidy when you told him you would not change this panel of experts?” Schrier asked.
“I never made that agreement,” Kennedy replied. “If he said that I agreed to it, it would be inaccurate. … I’m complying with all the agreements that I made with Sen. Cassidy.”
