Cassidy ties Pennsylvania measles deaths to 'misinformation and misguided policies'

Health committee chair challenges surgeon general pick on MMR safety

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who chairs the Senate health committee, used Wednesday’s confirmation hearing to challenge the Trump administration’s vaccine posture, telling nominee Nicole Saphier that she needed to speak with clarity about the MMR vaccine’s safety.

Cassidy opened the exchange by pointing to the human cost of the administration’s policies. Three people in Pennsylvania have died of measles, with a fourth death under review, he said, attributing the fatalities to “misinformation and misguided policies.” “To suffer from any disease is awful, but to suffer one which is avoidable, that’s even worse,” Cassidy said. He called the outbreak “a terrible legacy for this administration.”

The US is grappling with its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, a backdrop Cassidy used to press his case that public health leaders must base decisions on “science, not politics or ideology.”

The committee is currently considering three Trump nominees: Chris Klomp for deputy secretary of health and human services, Nicole Saphier for surgeon general, and Timothy Westlake to lead the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Saphier, a practicing radiologist and Fox News contributor, notably avoided mentioning vaccines directly in her opening remarks, instead emphasizing her Make America Healthy Again credentials and concerns about chronic disease and rising cancer rates in people under 50.

Cassidy seized on that avoidance. He recounted giving “wriggle room” to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his confirmation hearing as health secretary, only to watch Kennedy renege on several promises. He asked Saphier directly: “Would you feel comfortable communicating with clarity … Is the MMR vaccine extremely lethal, as the president said?”

Saphier responded that she “cannot speak to what the president has said,” but added: “I do not believe the MMR vaccine to be lethal. I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles.” She went further, calling vaccination “the best tool we have to combat these infections to save the most lives and to also create population herd immunity,” while acknowledging “the president is trying to reach vaccine-hesitant people who are wanting more answers.”

Cassidy was not persuaded. “I’m not sure that you reach people who are vaccine hesitant by feeding into untruths,” he said. Last month, he had publicly denounced Trump’s “crazy, stupid” claims about the safety of the combined MMR vaccine for undermining faith in immunization.

The exchange also revisited a promise Cassidy extracted from Kennedy during his confirmation battle. Cassidy said Kennedy had committed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.” After Kennedy became health secretary, however, the Autism and Vaccines page on the CDC website was altered to undermine that scientific consensus. An asterisk was added to the headline “Vaccines do not cause Autism,” directing readers to a footnote stating that “the root causes of autism” remain unknown.

Kennedy has pushed the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism for decades, a position that put him at odds with Cassidy even as Cassidy voted to confirm him as health secretary. Saphier’s opening remarks skipped vaccines entirely, focusing instead on chronic disease and Make America Healthy Again priorities, before Cassidy pressed her on the same questions he had raised with Kennedy.