When Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., lost his Republican primary last month, Becker’s noted that a lame-duck Senate HELP Committee chairman with no reelection to protect was worth watching. He is now providing evidence of what that looks like in practice.
On June 4, Dr. Cassidy publicly criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s approach to vaccine policy in a post on X. In the post, Dr. Cassidy shared a June 2 article from The New York Times on hospitals seeing a resurgence of vaccine-preventable illnesses and wrote it was “a terrible outcome from RFK and others promoting vaccine skepticism.”
The post is among his sharpest public criticisms of Mr. Kennedy since his confirmation hearings and comes several weeks after Dr. Cassidy voted with Democrats to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers and questioned the legality of the Anti-Weaponization Fund established as part of a settlement agreement in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service.
Dr. Cassidy was the deciding vote to confirm Mr. Kennedy in early 2025 despite public reservations about his vaccine skepticism. When Mr. Kennedy later overhauled the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which sets the nation’s vaccine recommendations, Dr. Cassidy said the reconstituted committee had been “totally discredited,” according to The Hill. Concerns about the panel have continued. In April, more than 130 medical, public health and patient advocacy organizations warned that recent changes to the ACIP charter could shift its focus away from vaccine benefits and erode access tied to federal coverage programs.
An HHS spokesperson told The Hill that the department rejects the premise that providing Americans with information about the benefits and risks of medical products undermines public health.
“Secretary Kennedy believes Americans deserve clear, evidence-based information so they can make healthcare decisions in consultation with their providers,” the spokesperson said. “The Secretary remains committed to ensuring public health policies are grounded in gold-standard science and to restoring confidence in our public health institutions.”
Taken together, the moves reflect a senator no longer calibrating his public statements around reelection, and one with significant authority still in hand. As chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Dr. Cassidy controls whether nominations for the CDC director and surgeon general advance to a committee vote and to the Senate floor. Neither nominee — Erica Schwartz, MD, for CDC director and Nicole Saphier, MD, for surgeon general — has received a committee vote.
The nominations have not been scheduled for a committee hearing. That timeline is now Dr. Cassidy’s to set.
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