RFK Jr. made some promises on vaccines to get confirmed. Is he breaking them?

The Trump era is rife with Republicans who abandon their principles in the name of toeing Donald Trump’s line. But few have gambled with those principles recently like Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy. The chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in February played the pivotal role in confirming a longtime purveyor of vaccine misinformation, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as Health and Human Services secretary. Cassidy did so despite often citing how 30 years of practicing medicine taught him how crucial vaccines are – and despite his very public reservations about Kennedy’s views and motivations on the subject. He also did so at a time when vaccine skepticism has risen sharply on the right, meaning Cassidy’s strongly held beliefs were already losing ground. At Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, Cassidy recalled loading an 18-year-old woman who had hepatitis B onto an ambulance so she could get an emergency liver transplant. “And as she took off, it was the worst day of my medical career, because I thought $50 of vaccines could have prevented this all,” Cassidy said. “That was an inflection point in my career.” Cassidy, who faces reelection and likely a primary challenge in 2026, ultimately gave Kennedy a decisive vote, after obtaining what the senator cast as a series of vaccine-related concessions. But pretty much ever since then, Kennedy has tested the spirit of that agreement, if he hasn’t violated it outright. Most recently, that took the form of Kennedy on Monday removing all 17 members of an expert panel of advisers that guides the federal government’s vaccine recommendations. Many immediately cast this as contrary to what Kennedy promised Cassidy. It’s not quite so simple, for reasons we’ll get to. But plenty of other actions could fit into that category. For his part, Cassidy on Monday would not tell CNN whether he regrets his vote for Kennedy. Last month, the senator said Kennedy had “lived up to” the agreement. But at other times, he has taken issue with Kennedy’s actions. It’s worth a review of what Cassidy said back then – and since. The vaccine advisory panel Cassidy laid out the conditions during a speech on the Senate floor. In those February remarks, Cassidy cited the same vaccine advisory panel Kennedy just cleared out. “If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes,” Cassidy said, according to video of his remarks. An old transcript of Cassidy’s speech on his own website omitted the word “recommendations,” leading Kennedy’s critics on Monday to accuse him of breaking his word by changing the makeup of the committee itself. But Cassidy’s comments pertained to the committee’s recommendations. (CNN has reached out to Cassidy’s office about the transcript.) Cassidy in an X post Monday expressed concern about what comes next. He cited a “fear” that “ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.” “I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case,” he added. He declined to go further when pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju. The vaccine process Cassidy also said in his February speech that Kennedy had “committed that he would work within current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems.” But just in the past two weeks, Kennedy announced changes to the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedules without ACIP’s input. Vaccines and autism “CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism,” Cassidy said in his speech. There is no evidence that the CDC has done this. But Kennedy has taken actions that seem geared toward his longstanding and debunked linking of vaccines to autism, which Cassidy took exception to at Kennedy’s confirmation hearing. Most recently, this took the form of launching a “massive testing and research effort” to find the causes of autism, which critics worry will be geared toward vaccines. And indeed, CNN previously reported HHS had asked the CDC to study vaccines and autism, despite strong evidence there’s no link between the two. This is one area where Cassidy has expressed reservations. “I’ll point out that has been clearly laid to rest,” the senator said in April of the supposed link between vaccines and autism, according to The Advocate. “The more resources we put towards that, we are not putting towards actually finding out what is the cause of autism.” ‘Wrongfully’ sowing doubts about vaccines Finally, Cassidy’s floor speech suggested Kennedy had provided assurances that he wouldn’t use his position to “wrongfully” create suspicion about vaccines. “I will watch carefully for any effort to wrongfully sow public fear about vaccines [through] confusing references of coincidence and anecdote,” Cassidy said. “But my support is built on assurances that this will not have to be a concern …” There is no question Kennedy as HHS secretary has said many things that could undermine confidence in vaccines – often using misinformation. Amid a measles outbreak in Texas, Kennedy wasn’t quick to explicitly recommend the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, while floating unconventional treatments like vitamin A in ways that experts worried would discourage vaccinations. He also made a series of claims about the MMR vaccine that experts reject. These have included that it contains “fetal debris” and that it “was never safety tested.” He has also claimed that no childhood vaccine except the Covid-19 vaccine has been fully tested against placebos. But that’s not true — something Cassidy pointed out in perhaps the most significant example of him calling out Kennedy. After Kennedy made the claim at a hearing last month, Cassidy returned to the hearing to correct him. “The secretary made the statement that no vaccines except for Covid have been evaluated against placebo,” Cassidy said. “For the record, that’s not true. The rotavirus, measles and HPV vaccines have been, and some vaccines are tested against previous versions. So, just for the record to set that straight,” Cassidy said. It was the kind of claim that might lead one to wonder whether the guy you elevated to such a powerful position was actually living up to the agreement that got him there. Cassidy doesn’t seem willing to go there yet. But all signs are Kennedy is going to continue making him second-guess his choices.