When Sen. Bill Cassidy on Thursday expressed his support for Erica Schwartz, President Trump’s pick for CDC director, he signaled that he may once again cast a critical vote for a candidate that poses a risk to US public health.
At her confirmation hearing earlier this month, Schwartz, who has a medical degree, sidestepped questions on whether she would resist pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to carry out policies that she believed contradicted scientific evidence.
After this, Cassidy, a physician and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, withheld his support of Schwartz. But on Thursday, he pivoted, telling committee members: “I’m confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not.” The Louisiana senator said he now trusts Schwartz after they spoke privately, and after federal officials made a “good faith” change to the CDC’s website that linked vaccines and autism. The webpage still cites the retracted study that makes this vaccine-autism link, and now includes an asterisk with a note that “Scientists have not identified the root causes of autism.”
The page also still states that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” This idea has been disproven by decades of scientific research.
In a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Cassidy admitted that this version of the website is not, in fact, a “good faith” attempt to stop spreading vaccine misinformation. But he added that parents probably don’t look at that CDC webpage anyway: “I’ve never met a parent who wasn’t a pediatrician who’s gone into the website to look for information about vaccines.”
In response, Bash noted that the CDC sets public health policy, which makes it likely parents do seek guidance from the agency.
Cassidy responded that he is continuing to discuss the CDC’s stance on vaccines with the health department, and that they have made additional concessions, but did not disclose what those were.
Cassidy’s pivot on Schwartz echoes his actions last year, when he cast the deciding vote in favor of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for health secretary. Cassidy had initially withheld support for RFK given the Trump ally’s statements that vaccines are unsafe. But Cassidy changed his mind after receiving assurances from Kennedy that he would work within existing vaccine approval and safety systems and would collaborate with Cassidy—promises that implied Kennedy would not undermine vaccine access.
Since then, Kennedy has done the opposite, turning fringe conspiracy theories about vaccine safety into health policy—including cutting nearly $500 million in research funding for mRNA vaccines, the vaccine technology used in many COVID vaccines.
Cassidy directed the Senate health committee to delay a vote on Thursday on whether to advance Schwartz’s nomination following Republican attendance issues. They are expected to vote next week.