U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is among those taking a stand against the nearly $500 million in cuts in federal funding for future vaccine development. The decision comes from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As Louisiana Public Radio reports, over the past six months Cassidy has questioned some of Kennedy’s policies and even made some suggestions. But rarely has he ever directly criticized Kennedy. That changed after Kennedy announced HHS would be cutting back on mRNA vaccine development, including ones similar to the vaccines that ended the COVID-19 pandemic.
On X, formerly Twitter, Sen. Cassidy, who worked as a physician for 30 years, called the announcement quote “unfortunate,” and said Kennedy had quote, “conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease.”
Sen. Cassidy is far from alone. Dr. Michael Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Speaking on the August 6 broadcast of PBS Newshour, Dr. Osterholm said the risks of Kennedy pursuing an aggressive anti-vaccine agenda are “incalculable, just because of the fact we’re talking about potentially not just a few deaths. We’re talking about many, many, many deaths that would occur.” Osterholm concluded, “I can say unequivocally that this is the most dangerous public health decision I have ever seen made a government body.”
As for Cassidy, he also said the cuts don’t fit the Trump agenda, writing quote, “President Trump wants to Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again. This works against both of President Trump’s goals.” Cassidy was originally hesitant to confirm Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, as Health Secretary, but ended up as the final vote endorsing him.
But in an X video recently posted by Sec. Kennedy, he said mRNA vaccines do not adequately prevent upper respiratory infections such as COVID-19.and therefore are ineffective to justify spending $500 million in research projects. Experts insist Kennedy is wrong.
