Senator Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) appeared to keep away from instantly inserting blame on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., even after CNN’s Jake Tapper talked about that the identified anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist might not have been forthright with him whereas making an attempt to achieve Cassidy’s help in taking the helm as Secretary of the Division of Health and Human Companies.
Showing on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, the Louisiana senator, who chairs the Senate’s well being committee and can also be a doctor, skirted round responding to Tapper, who flat-out stated that RFK Jr. “lied” to him after ordering the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to change its web site language on autism and vaccines.
The CDC’s “vaccine safety” web page on its web site was up to date on Nov. 19 to assert that the assertion “vaccines do not cause autism” is just not evidence-based as a result of it doesn’t rule out the likelihood that toddler vaccines are linked to the dysfunction.
After Tapper performed a clip of Kennedy pledging to Cassidy throughout his affirmation course of that he wouldn’t go towards the CDC’s tips that vaccines don’t trigger autism, the CNN host bluntly instructed Cassidy that Kennedy “lied” to him.
Regardless of Kennedy’s adjustment to the location that defies long-held, widespread scientific consensus on vaccine security, Cassidy known as on Individuals to get vaccinated whatever the replace to the CDC web site.
“Well, first let me say, what is most important to the American people — speaking as a physician — vaccines are safe,” Cassidy instructed Tapper. “As it’s been pointed out, it’s actually not disputed; it’s actually quite well proven that vaccines are not associated with autism.”
In a roundabout way naming RFK Jr., Cassidy famous that there’s a “fringe out there that thinks so, but they’re quite a fringe.”
“President Trump agrees that vaccines are safe, and if you look at the consequences of not taking vaccines … There’s two children dead in West Texas from not taking a measles vaccine,” he stated. “There’s a woman pregnant who lost her child because she was exposed to someone who did not have the measles vaccine … “
Cassidy, who helped secure Kennedy’s bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, added: “So discuss this with your doctor. Vaccines are safe. That’s the most important message.”
Tapper went on to level out that Tatiana Schlossberg penned an essay revealed by The New Yorker Saturday that took photographs at her cousin, RFK Jr., whereas revealing her terminal most cancers prognosis. Within the essay, she torched her cousin for his controversial agenda as well being secretary and the unfavourable influence it had on the remedy she acquired.
“RFK Jr., according to his own family, is causing real damage to the health of the United States of America. You don’t seem willing to criticize him by name at all, unlike members of his family,” Tapper instructed Cassidy.
Cassidy fired again, accusing the journalist of eager to get him on “record saying something negative.”
“Of course, it makes news if Republicans fight each other,” he added.
Tapper then opposed Cassidy’s remark, noting that he’s uncertain if Kennedy even identifies as a Republican. Kennedy beforehand ran as an impartial earlier than abandoning his presidential marketing campaign final yr.
“Whatever,” Cassidy responded. “I’m all about, how do we make America healthy?”
Elsewhere within the interview, Cassidy instructed Tapper, “I know it’s titillating, but I think we need to move beyond the titillation.”
Arguing that “this isn’t about titillation,” Tapper added, “This is about the fact that you are the chairman of the health committee and you voted to confirm somebody that by all accounts … is actually making America less healthy when it comes to vaccines and studies.”
Kennedy, who was appointed by Trump, has an extended historical past of spreading deceptive and false statements about well being. The unscientific public well being recommendation from Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, has drawn vital controversy from medical and public well being consultants.
