Overview
- Sen. Bill Cassidy publicly challenged the president’s recent statements on vaccine schedules and safety, saying leaders must be clear that vaccines are safe and effective.
- Cassidy warned that discouraging immunization will lead to more illness and deaths and cited recent measles-related fatalities to underline the risk to children and vulnerable patients.
- President Trump has pushed an executive order and public comments calling for splitting combined childhood shots into separate doses and asserting unproven links between vaccines and autism.
- Cassidy pressed the president to disclose the evidence and advisers behind those claims and said he expects health nominees to reject descriptions of the MMR vaccine as “lethal,” praising nominee Nicole Saphier for doing so.
- Public-health experts and federal agencies say measles is highly contagious and that the combined MMR vaccine is the evidence-backed standard for prevention, a backdrop that elevates concern about the impact of mixed messages from political leaders.