Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who cast a critical vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, on Monday blasted the reduction of the childhood immunization schedule by Kennedy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC announced Monday it would be reducing the number of recommended vaccines for children from 17 to 11, putting the U.S. in line with that of other developed countries like Denmark, a nation which anti-vaccine skeptics and critics often cite as a model to be emulated.
Cassidy, a physician and longtime proponent of vaccinations, said this move will “make America sicker.”
“As a doctor who treated patients for decades, my top priority is protecting children and families. Multiple children have died or were hospitalized from measles, and South Carolina continues to face a growing outbreak. Two children have died in my state from whooping cough. All of this was preventable with safe and effective vaccines,” Cassidy wrote on the social media platform X.
“The vaccine schedule IS NOT A MANDATE. It’s a recommendation giving parents the power. Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker,” he added.
HHS officials said on Monday that the change will not require the evidence-based review and input of the agency’s vaccine advisory panel. While the agency claimed this reduction is meant to increase vaccines, medical experts have expressed concerns this will have the opposite effect.
Critics of Kennedy have argued that Denmark, with a population of roughly 6 million people and a healthcare system far different from that of the U.S., is a poor comparison when it comes to vaccine policy.
As a member of the Senate Finance Committee and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Cassidy was a deciding vote in confirming Kennedy last year. A major sticking point for Cassidy was Kennedy’s long history of questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his refusal to let go of unproven claims that vaccines could be linked to autism.
“There’s a 70-year-old man, 71-year-old man, who spent decades criticizing vaccines and was financially vested in finding fault with vaccines,” Cassidy said of Kennedy during his second confirmation hearing. “Can he change his attitudes and approach now that he’ll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States?”
Despite his admitted reservations, Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy after receiving assurances that he would be allowed to give input on the secretary’s actions at HHS. Cassidy has expressed frustration with several of Kennedy’s actions since his confirmation, taking issue with many of his immunization-related actions.
The two engaged in a heated back-and-forth during a September Senate hearing which took place after Kennedy fired and remade a key advisory committee on immunizations with handpicked experts of known vaccine skeptics and critics.