GOP senator who voted for RFK turns on him over panel stacked with vax-skeptics
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who once backed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary, is now calling to halt the rollout of what is becoming one of Kennedy’s most controversial moves.
Cassidy, who chairs the Senate health committee and is a physician himself, urged the Trump administration on Monday to postpone a meeting later this week of Kennedy’s newly appointed vaccine advisory panel, Bloomberg reported. The GOP lawmaker argued the panel is too small and lacks scientific credibility.
“Wednesday’s meeting should not proceed with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations,” Cassidy posted Monday on X. He added that Kennedy’s eight appointees “do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology,” and “may even have a preconceived bias” against messenger RNA vaccines.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, recently fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The move came months after Cassidy voted to confirm the Trump administration official under the assurances he would do no such thing. The firings – and the contradiction of Kennedy's confirmation promise – drew outrage from prominent health experts and journalists when it was announced earlier this month.
But Kennedy said in a Fox News appearance he would allow Cassidy to choose an additional committee member, according to Bloomberg.
The Louisiana senator is set to preside Wednesday over the confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s CDC director pick, Susan Monarez, the same day the vaccine panel is scheduled to meet.
Both CDC and HHS declined to comment.