How Bill Cassidy, a lifelong vaccination lawyer, voted for RFK Jr. as health secretary

Monday night, only hours ahead of a Senate Committee on Tuesday on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as health secretary, senator Bill Cassidy still decided what to do.

Cassidy, who worked 30 years in public hospitals in Louisiana, is a lifelong spokesman for vaccinations. After seeing a young woman almost dying of liver failure after getting hepatitis B, the doctor helped create a program that offers free shots to school children.

Kennedy, on the other hand, had built up a large subsequent on social media by questioning the security of vaccines and false associates them with autism, despite several large studies debunking the myth.

Now Cassidy was the only GOP senator of the Senate Finance Committee, which was openly questioned whether Kennedy was the right man for the job. A single “no” voice from any Republicans on the panel could have been enough to derail the nomination of President Donald Trump who said he chose Kennedy to “go wild” about questions related to food, medicine and health.

Cassidy said he asked, “Would it be possible to get Mr. Kennedy to work together to help public health agencies resume the confidence of the American people?”

The Louisiana Republican said he received “hundreds” of personal messages of the day and “thousands” more through his Senate office. Concerned pediatricians urged Cassidy to block Kennedy from the job and blame Kennedy for an increase in vaccine hesitation among parents. There were also pro-kennedy-influenced social media, including “Maha Moms” -a reference to Kennedy’s call to “make America healthy again” and demanded that he be given a chance to shake what they saw as one broken system.

“It was a massive coalition that collaborated to gather several different groups that literally closed the telephone lines this weekend and late last week and yesterday,” Vani Hari, a food flu who called “Food Babe” on social media, told ABC News.

“The messages were very positive,” she said.

According to a person who was familiar with Cassidy’s thinking, the senator was 95%”of the way to a” yes “voice on Monday night, but that the question of vaccines stood in the way.

Cassidy was particularly concerned about a potential outbreak of measles if Kennedy were to take on control of America’s health agencies and continue to raise doubts about the vaccine that had been used for decades to prevent the very contagious and potentially deadly childhood disease.

“He needed something just to let him feel comfortable that he would not be responsible for the death of children because of this,” the person ABC News told about Cassidy’s concerns.

A lifelong Republican, Cassidy had already defied President Donald Trump once voting in 2021 in favor of a single article on forgery of Trump in connection with the January 6th attack on Capitol and facing a Republican primary challenge to his Senate seat next year.

Last Tuesday, Cassidy seemed to have got what he needed to vote “Yes.” After talking several times with Kennedy via phone over the weekend and again the morning after the vote, Cassidy announced on the social media platform X that he had “serious obligations” from both Kennedy and the White House.

Among these promises is that Kennedy will give advanced notice to Congress if he imposes changes in vaccine security monitoring and meets with Cassidy several times a month to build a collaboration.

Both the administration and Kennedy had sought “to reassure me with regard to their obligation to protect the public health benefit of vaccination” and offer an “unprecedented close cooperation relationship,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy’s support paves the way for a full vote from the Senate.

“It’s been a long, intense process, but I assessed it when I would assess a patient as a doctor. Ultimately, it’s too important to restore confidence in our public health institution and I think Mr. Kennedy can help with getting it, “Cassidy said.

How a doctor and a lifelong spokesman for vaccinations found that he voted for Kennedy is an indication of Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, experts said. And while Cassidy may think he can keep Kennedy in check, there is not much motivation for the new administration to keep promises to the individual lawmakers.

“It’s a completely different kind of Washington,” said Sarah Isgur, a Republican who served in the first Trump administration and now is ABC News contributor.

While legislators and members of the executive branch in the past worked closely together to build up the kinds of conditions that may extend long after they leave public service, the current administration says its focus is forcing through major changes, not to make friends or future Job connections.

“Cassidy is doing something very rational, which was done in previous administrations,” Isgur said. “But it is based on an earlier version of Washington … This administration has made it clear that they are not running the government on matters.”

For another time, Kennedy’s nomination would have been conceivable. A Democrat, whose cousin Caroline Kennedy told senators, was a “predator” who only sought attention and fame, Kennedy is known for promoting debunked conspiracy theories of health. In recent years he was chairman of the Children’s Health Defense, a group that advocates the recommended schedule for child vaccines. He also played a key role in the preparation of a lawsuit against the producer of the HPV vaccine. He has since promised to dispose of potential revenue in the case in progress to his adult son.

Kennedy counts that he believes that the pharmaceutical industry is too focused on profits and that medical experts do not do enough to question ordinary claims while Americans suffer from chronic diseases.

“News reports have claimed that I am an anti-vaccine or any industry. I’m neither. I’m pro-security,” Kennedy told legislators last week.

Brad Woodhouse, director of the liberal advocacy group protects our care, said the fight was not over until the full Senate votes.

“Each senator will now have to weigh, and we will not give up any vote,” he said in a statement that was published shortly after the vote.

Republicans have a 53-seat majority that allows Kennedy to lose three Republicans and still survive with Vice President JD Vance, who throws a draw if necessary.

GOP SENS. Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and Mitch McConnell from Kentucky are largely seen as potential “no” voting because of their willingness to challenge the administration in other issues. McConnell, a polio survivor, has previously talked about the value of a health secretary who supports medical consensus on vaccines.

Another potential swing vote – Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina – already announced that he would support Kennedy after receiving insurance that Kennedy would not capture the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or National Institutes of Health

The Trump Administration already pause major features of the CDC, including blocking the release of the agency’s weekly publication – morbidity and mortality Weekly report – as part of a break of all public communication to ensure that all that is released is in thread with Trump’s agenda.

“First of all, I think it’s time to put a disturbance in. It’s time to put someone in there that will go wild,” said Tillis.

The Democrats said they also want someone to challenge the status quo about chronic illness, but said that Kennedy’s denial of scientific consensus would not help Americans.

“I want a disruption in health care and someone who leads it. I don’t want a destroyer,” said senator Peter Welch, D-VT.