‘This Is Dangerous!’ GOP Senator Warns Top Trump Health Official Against Further ‘Casting Doubt’ On Vaccines

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) grilled National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya on Tuesday during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing on his agency.

Cassidy, who was a key vote in confirming Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr, questioned Bhattacharya about the Trump administration’s latest notes on vaccine schedules for children, which critics claim have encouraged vaccine skepticism that has led to recent measles outbreaks.

Cassidy began by praising Kennedy for urging Americans to get the measles vaccine: “If the clear note is yes, you can trust, and to the credit of the secretary, after two kids died in West Texas from measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, the clear note finally went out: you should get vaccinated.”

“My fear is that we’re going to have meningococcemia, with children losing fingers and legs and toes, because now we don’t vaccinate routinely for meningococcemia. Rare but highly consequential. This is dangerous! And I’m afraid that that concoction of notes is going to further undermine trust. Do you not see that?” Cassidy then asked.

Bhattacharya replied, “I mean, I guess I think of it differently. I think we have to reestablish trust. Absolutely, I share your goal entirely. And the question is the method of reestablishing trust. I think that if you just double down on what we’ve previously done that led to the loss of trust, we’re not going to change it.”

Cassidy, who is a doctor, jumped back in, “Now, we were both professors. I don’t mean to interrupt, but we’re both professors, and we know that it may seem lofty, but education is the way that you address trust. Now we have a measles outbreak among those who did not trust. Now, is it to further cast doubt upon the measles vaccine to say that the MMR should be divided into three doses for no scientific reason, to increase the number of shots that a child has to take? I mean, no, that’s not going to increase trust, and it’s going to decrease complete immunization rates. We know that from experience. I’m just curious about that.”

Bhattacharya replied, “I’m not certain that that’s true, Senator, that we won’t—we will not—I mean, I think that the key thing about the Danish experience is that establishment of public trust by being open. That’s because the Danes are—”

Cassidy hit back, “It’s a club. It’s not a country, it’s a club. If you go to Denmark, you know it’s like going to your Kiwanis club. Everybody knows each other, they all look alike. And that ain’t our country. You know what I’m saying?”

Bhattacharya responded, “I mean, I don’t know. I know several Danish people, and they’re very different from each other, but I don’t want to, like, stereotype. I think the key thing is, how do we reestablish trust?

Cassidy concluded, “And I think this is a clear note: if you keep on telling people permutations of what is false, they don’t know who to believe.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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