Senator Bill Cassidy, whose support was pivotal in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services, is criticizing a vaccine panel that Kennedy falsely promised he wouldn’t overhaul.
Cassidy called for the upcoming September meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to be delayed due to chaos surrounding the panel and the agency that runs it.
“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed“ for the meeting, Cassidy wrote.
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“If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”
Cassidy seemed to be referencing the full-blown leadership crisis that has engulfed the agency this week, with Kennedy trying to oust the CDC’s director as he purges thousands of employees and cuts the agency’s budget.
It also comes six months after Cassidy threw his support behind Kennedy Jr.’s nomination in a floor speech, which passed by two votes.
Cassidy, a gastroenterologist who worked for 30 years in a public hospital for the uninsured, said at the time that Kennedy had committed to not acting on his most fervent anti-vaccine views.
“If confirmed, [Kennedy] will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes,” Cassidy said while explaining his decision to vote to confirm the avowed vaccine skeptic.
That did not come to pass.
Kennedy fired all 17 of the committee’s former members and replaced them with a group that included several longtime vaccine skeptics. The committee then announced plans to review the safety of every single vaccine in the standard childhood immunization schedule.
Days after the shake-up, Cassidy called for the ACIP’s June meeting to be postponed due to the new members Kennedy appointed not having “significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology, or immunology.”
HHS ignored Cassidy’s post on X and held the meeting as scheduled. He was hammered by commenters for his role in allowing Kennedy to ascend to his position.
Despite Kennedy promising that the ACIP would end its practice of holding closed-door meetings, the June meeting again took place behind closed doors and ended with multiple controversial decisions that were criticized by experts.
Its seven members decided to ban the use of a flu vaccine ingredient called thimerosal, which is rarely used in American vaccines and has repeatedly been shown to be safe.
“No study has ever indicated any harm from thimerosal,” said a former ACIP member after the June meeting.
By the time the committee meets next on September 18, the CDC will likely have a new director. On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that Kennedy Jr. asked Dr. Susan Monarez to resign as director because she refused to sign off on a host of anti-vaccine policy proposals.
Monarez called Cassidy after Kennedy made his demands, and Cassidy subsequently called the HHS secretary to discuss his demands—which included Monarez following whatever advice the ACIP issues at its next meeting.
The White House said on Wednesday that Monarez had been fired, but her lawyers say that she will stay in the role until President Trump personally fires her.
The ACIP is set to review vaccines for hepatitis B, COVID, and measles in September.
Last week, The Daily Beast spoke to Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist and RFK Jr. associate, who predicted that the Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine from the U.S. market “within months.”
Monarez’s potential departure triggered three high-ranking CDC officials to resign on Thursday, joining the exodus of workers who have left the agency since the start of the new administration.
“I am not sure who the secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us,” one of the former officials wrote in his resignation letter.
It seems that the secretary is no longer listening to Senator Cassidy either.
The Daily Beast has contacted Cassidy’s office and HHS for comment.
