Shortly after start, newborns in america obtain just a few fast procedures: an Apgar check to verify their vitals, a heel keep on with probe for genetic issues and varied different circumstances, and typically, a hepatitis B vaccine. With out that final one, youngsters are liable to getting a brutal, and generally lethal, liver situation. Senator Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana occurs to know quite a bit about that. Earlier than coming into Congress in 2009, he was a doctor who stated he was so affected by an 18-year-old affected person with liver failure from the virus that he spearheaded a marketing campaign that vaccinated 36,000 youngsters in opposition to hepatitis B.
Cassidy, a Republican, will now play a serious function in figuring out the destiny of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s choose for well being secretary, whose affirmation hearings start right this moment on Capitol Hill. Kennedy has stated that the hepatitis B vaccine is given to kids solely as a result of the pharmaceutical firm Merck colluded with the federal government to get the shot beneficial for teenagers, after the drug’s goal market (“prostitutes and male homosexuals,” by Kennedy’s telling) weren’t within the shot. Kennedy will testify in entrance of the Senate Finance Committee, the place Cassidy and 26 different senators will get the prospect to grill him about his views. Although it might sound unattainable for an anti-vaccine conspiracist to achieve the help of a health care provider who nonetheless touts the work he did vaccinating kids, Cassidy has not indicated how he’ll vote. Much like the Democratic senators who’ve come out forcefully in opposition to Kennedy, Cassidy, in an interview with Fox Information earlier this month, stated that RFK Jr. is “mistaken” about vaccines. However he additionally stated that he did agree with him on some issues. (Cassidy’s workplace declined my request to interview the senator.)
That Kennedy even has an opportunity of profitable affirmation is gorgeous in its personal proper. A longtime anti-vaxxer with a propensity for far-fetched conspiracy theories, RFK Jr. has insinuated that an try to assassinate members of Congress through anthrax-laced mail in 2001 might have been a “false flag” assault orchestrated by “somebody in our authorities” to gin up curiosity within the authorities getting ready for potential organic weapon threats. He has claimed that COVID was “focused to assault Caucasians and Black individuals,” and that 5G is getting used to “harvest our knowledge and management our conduct.” He has recommended that the usage of antidepressants may be linked to mass shootings. Every one in every of these theories is demonstrably false. The Republican Celebration has usually discovered itself at battle with mainstream science in recent times, however confirming RFK Jr. can be a exceptional anti-science advance. If Republican senators are prepared to take action, is there any scientific perception they’d place above the needs of Donald Trump?
Various Republicans have already signaled the place they stand. Within the lead-up to the affirmation hearings, some GOP senators have sought to sanewash RFK Jr., implying that his views actually aren’t that excessive. They’ve motive to love a few of what he’s promoting: After the pandemic, many Republicans have grown so skeptical of the public-health institution that Kennedy’s need to blow it up can appear engaging. And elements of RFK Jr.’s “Make America wholesome once more” agenda do actually adhere to sound scientific proof. His views on how you can sort out America’s epidemic of diet-related ailments are pretty effectively reasoned: Cassidy has stated that he agrees with RFK Jr.’s need to take motion in opposition to ultra-processed meals. Kennedy seems to have received over the 2 different Republican medical doctors on the committee, Senators Roger Marshall of Kansas and John Barrasso of Wyoming. Marshall has been so obsessed with Kennedy’s deal with diet-related ailments that he has created a MAHA caucus within the Senate. Though Barrasso hasn’t formally made an endorsement, he has stated that Kennedy would offer a “recent set of eyes” on the Meals and Drug Administration. (Spokespeople for Barrasso and Marshall didn’t reply to requests for remark.)
In the meantime, Kennedy seems to have gone to nice lengths to sand down his extremist views and current himself as a extra palatable candidate. “He informed me he isn’t anti-vaccine. He’s professional–vaccine security, which strikes me as a rational place to take,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas informed Politico. Kennedy has additionally accomplished extra to drum up pointless concern about COVID pictures than maybe anybody else within the nation. Almost 4 years in the past, he petitioned the federal authorities to revoke authorization for the pictures, as a result of “the present dangers of significant hostile occasions or deaths outweigh the advantages.” (COVID pictures are extremely secure and efficient. A spokesperson for Kennedy didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
Particularly on the best, Kennedy’s conspiracy theories haven’t consumed his candidacy: With considerations about conflicts of curiosity, his views on abortion, and usually unusual conduct (akin to dumping a useless bear in Central Park), there’s a lot to debate. If Republican senators skirt round his falsehoods throughout right this moment’s affirmation hearings, it will likely be proof of their prevailing capitulation to Trump. And it additionally could also be a perform of Kennedy’s rhetorical sleights. As Benjamin Mazer lately wrote in The Atlantic, Kennedy isn’t merely a conspiracy theorist, however a superb one. He’s able to rattling off vaccine research with the fluency of a virologist, which boosts his credibility, though he’s freely misrepresenting actuality.
Throughout his current look on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Kennedy claimed that thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury used to guard vaccines from contamination, was discovered to trigger “extreme irritation” within the mind of monkeys. Kennedy was in a position to rapidly title the lead creator and introduce the strategies as if he has learn the research a whole bunch of occasions. However Kennedy’s central declare—that the brains of monkeys given thimerosal have been severely infected—is a “complete misrepresentation” of the research, its lead creator, Thomas M. Burbacher, informed me. The issue is that Kennedy will get away with these claims as a result of only a few listeners are going to go online to PubMed to trace down the research he’s referencing, not to mention learn by your entire factor.
In concept, senators ought to be outfitted to push again on his schtick. RFK Jr.’s positions are hardly a thriller, and senators have advisers to assist them put together for such hearings. No matter Kennedy’s pseudoscientific beliefs, some Republicans might help him just because they’re cautious of bucking their president. Earlier than Kennedy even makes it to a full vote from the Senate, he has to obtain approval from the Senate Finance Committee: Given the tight margins within the committee, Kennedy can’t afford to lose a single vote from Republicans sitting on that panel, assuming that no Democrats help his nomination. I reached out to the places of work of seven Republican senators on the committee who haven’t already backed Kennedy for readability on the place they stand; none of them gave me a straight reply on how they’d vote.
In all probability, the primary huge resolution in Kennedy’s nomination will fall to Cassidy. He has proved prepared to oppose Trump earlier than. Cassidy was one in every of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump throughout his second impeachment proceedings. That led Louisiana’s Republican Celebration to formally censure him, and has drawn him a major challenger for his 2026 reelection bid. Though Cassidy criticized Trump throughout the 2024 marketing campaign, he now appears wanting to help him. “Right this moment, the American individuals begin profitable once more,” Cassidy wrote in an announcement on Inauguration Day.
Maybe Cassidy will nonetheless dissect Kennedy’s views with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. He likes to dive deep into health-care trivia any probability he will get. (I might know: He as soon as pulled out his iPad and lectured me and different reporters about some arcane drug-pricing coverage.) But when right this moment’s assembly is stuffed with softball questions, it may put RFK Jr. on his option to affirmation. That will ship a message that, science-wise, the Senate is prepared to cede all floor. Trump may pursue probably the most radical elements of the Undertaking 2025 agenda, akin to splitting up the CDC, or Kennedy may launch a full-blown assault on vaccines—and the Senate can be in a a lot much less highly effective place to cease it even when it wished to. If senators hand the keys of a virtually $2 trillion health-care company to a recognized conspiracy theorist, something goes.