Of all the senators who voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the one who disappoints me most is Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Cassidy is a medical doctor who specializes in diseases of the liver. He founded a community clinic to provide uninsured residents of Baton Rouge with free health care. He helped establish nonprofit health centers in schools to vaccinate children against hepatitis B and the flu. After Katrina, he led a group of volunteers to provide emergency care to the hurricane victims. He has been a life-long vaccine advocate.
Yet, somehow he voted to confirm the country’s primary promoter of anti-vax propaganda. He voted to place as the leader of American’s health effort one of the Disinformation Dozen — the twelve anti-vaxxers responsible for almost two-thirds of anti‑vaccine content on social media. He voted for one of the most anti-science, anti-public health, anti-medicine charlatans in our society.
How did a good man like Senator Cassidy come to such a horribly wrong decision? How did Senator Cassidy decide to turn his back on the health of children in his state? How did a physician like Senator Cassidy choose to violate his Hippocratic Oath? I don’t know.
What I do know is that Senator Cassidy will have to live with his decision. We will not forget his role in confirming RFK Jr. When children start contracting preventable diseases (as the unvaccinated are now in the Texas measles outbreak), he will be responsible. How will he sleep at night knowing he could have stopped this, but chose not to?
Senator Cassidy, you should not worry about your next election. That is the least of your problems. You should worry about looking at yourself in the mirror.