Bill Cassidy is a physician, and a U.S. Senator from Louisiana. He chairs the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which oversees the Department of Health and Human Services. Before he became a senator, Cassidy was a widely recognized promoter of vaccination, who set up vaccine clinics in middle schools and prisons.
So what happened when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came before his committee as nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services? Cassidy voted for him. So what did he get for his loyalty to the Idiot In Chief?
Today, a year after now-Sen. Cassidy warily cast the vote that ensured Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ascension to that role, the Louisiana Republican's life's work -- in medicine and in politics -- is unraveling.
Newborn hepatitis B vaccination rates in the U.S. had plunged to 73% as of August, down 10 percentage points since a February 2023 high, according to research published in JAMA last month. In December, the CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) -- remade by Kennedy -- voted to revoke a two-decade-old recommendation that all newborns get the shot.
The next month, Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, a Cassidy challenger in what's shaping up to be a competitive Republican Senate primary. Letlow's foray into politics began in 2021 when she took the seat won by her husband, left vacant after he died from COVID.
Now Louisiana's health department has stopped all efforts to promote vaccination, and Louisiana anti-vaxers have been given prominent positions in federal government. And get this:
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry reprimanded Cassidy after the senator called for the state's health department to ease access to COVID shots.
"Why don't you just leave a prescription for the dangerous COVID shot at your district office and anyone can swing by and get one!" the Republican quipped on X in September.
I particularly like the comments on the article.
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