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\n

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services could come down to one senator. That senator, Bill Cassidy<\/a> (R-La.), said he was deeply torn about his vote during a hearing of the Senate committee in charge of health policy on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Cassidy, the panel\u2019s chair and a gastroenterologist before entering politics, spoke of his own experience with life-saving vaccines and repeatedly asked Kennedy to disavow his past anti-vaccine advocacy.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said he\u2019d review the evidence and \u201capologize for any statement that misled people\u201d if proven wrong, but also indicated he didn\u2019t think he was wrong when he spent years linking vaccines to rising autism and chaired an anti-vaccine advocacy group.<\/p>\n

Appearing frustrated, Cassidy said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to figure that out for my vote\u201d and said he might reach out to Kennedy over the weekend to talk about it more.<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s vote is critical because he also sits on the Finance Committee, which heard Kennedy\u2019s testimony yesterday and will cast the vote on whether to recommend Kennedy\u2019s confirmation to the Senate. The Republicans have a one-seat edge there, so if all the members of the Democratic caucus oppose Kennedy, Cassidy could deny him the panel\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n

Cassidy could also allow Kennedy\u2019s nomination to proceed to the Senate floor without the Finance panel\u2019s recommendation, but Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> told Semafor earlier this week that it wouldn\u2019t be ideal to bring another one<\/a> of President Donald Trump\u2019s nominees \u2014 Tulsi Gabbard, who is also facing confirmation hearings to lead the nation\u2019s intelligence agencies this week \u2014 to the floor without a favorable committee vote.<\/p>\n

When Cassidy asked for a \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d as to whether Kennedy would unequivocally say hepatitis B and measles vaccines do not cause autism, Kennedy qualified his answer: \u201cIf the data is there, I will absolutely do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the hearing, Cassidy returned to the question, reading the title of a study that found no link between vaccines and autism.<\/p>\n

Cassidy seemed to plead with Kennedy to renounce his past claims: \u201cConvince me,\u201d Cassidy said.<\/p>\n

But Kennedy declined. \u201cYou and I can meet about it,\u201d he said \u2014 adding that he would bring his own studies, some of which show \u201cthe opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Kennedy said he would make declarations on vaccine safety \u201cif the data is there\u201d or if presented with further evidence.<\/p>\n

Democrats on Cassidy\u2019s health panel quoted Kennedy statements questioning vaccine safety, arguing that the vociferousness of his anti-vaccine views belied the assurances he was offering Cassidy about studying the data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been, as I understand, dozens of studies done all over the world that make it very clear that vaccines do not cause autism,\u201d the panel\u2019s ranking member, Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.) said. \u201cI heard you just say, if the evidence is there. The evidence is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats also raised Kennedy\u2019s shaky responses on Medicare and Medicaid, arguing that he didn\u2019t understand the programs he would be in charge of managing. Cassidy had questioned Kennedy about the programs when the Finance Committee heard from Kennedy yesterday.<\/p>\n

But Republicans on the committee made the case that Kennedy\u2019s desire to disrupt the public health establishment and concentrate on finding and combating the root causes of disease \u2014 the focus of Kennedy\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d \u2014 movement were refreshing.<\/p>\n

Some also argued Kennedy\u2019s skepticism about vaccines was healthy and that the nation\u2019s top health official should be willing to question scientific dogma.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul<\/a> turned toward Cassidy and argued that in some cases government guidance on vaccination was debatable, citing the recommendation that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine and that children and healthy, young people get Covid shots. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to let him have the debate because you\u2019re just going to criticize and say, \u2018It is this and admit to it or we\u2019re not going to appoint you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That prompted an exchange with Cassidy over the necessity of infant vaccination for hepatitis B, with Cassidy arguing it was.<\/p>\n

Sen. Markwayne Mullin<\/a> (R-Okla.) later commended Kennedy for questioning the vaccine schedule. \u201cAn issue that I have as a father of six is that when my kids come out from getting their vaccines they look like a freakin\u2019 pin cushion,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you start looking at the rise of autism, why wouldn\u2019t we be looking at everything?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy at times tried to assuage concerns about his anti-vaccine history, saying he would \u201crestore vaccine uptake.\u201d He repeatedly suggested that government leaders aren\u2019t trustworthy and argued that is the reason many people refuse vaccines.<\/p>\n

Democrats looked united in their opposition to Kennedy, but it wasn\u2019t clear whether they could hope for any Republican allies beyond Cassidy.<\/p>\n

Sens. Lisa Murkowski<\/a> (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins<\/a> (R-Maine), who have both shown a willingness to break from Trump, voting last week against his choice to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, suggested concern about Kennedy\u2019s anti-vaccine work.<\/p>\n

Murkowski was one of few senators to attend the entire hearing, but didn\u2019t ask Kennedy about vaccination, and ended by questioning Kennedy about health care in Alaska. After the hearing, she said she didn\u2019t think there was anything \u201cbrand new\u201d from the hearing and declined to elaborate on how she\u2019d vote.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she was convinced Kennedy is not a vaccine skeptic, Murkowski said she was ignoring the question. But she went on to say that some questions were \u201ctelling,\u201d that he seemed skeptical of the safety of some vaccines but not others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the science has been out there for a long time and been proven, do you need to continue being the skeptic?\u201d she asked after the hearing.<\/p>\n

Collins arrived late to the hearing and asked Kennedy whether he\u2019d invest in finding a vaccine for Lyme disease and whether he backed polio vaccination. Kennedy said yes.<\/p>\n

Robert King contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services could come down to one senator. That senator, Bill Cassidy (R-La.), said he was deeply torn about his vote during a hearing of the Senate committee in charge of health policy on Thursday. Cassidy, the panel\u2019s chair and a gastroenterologist before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}