Bill Cassidy

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy used a confirmation hearing Wednesday to indirectly blast the anti-vaccination policies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which he said have resulted in a series of infectious disease outbreaks and caused the deaths of untold numbers of children.

“We need a CDC director that will actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization,” Cassidy said to Erica Schwartz, 54, Trump’s third nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at her Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing.

Cassidy chairs the committee.

Back when he was courting President Donald Trump’s backing for his reelection, Cassidy, a Baton Rouge physician who studied vaccine efficacy, was responsible for the Senate confirming Kennedy, perhaps the most well-known vaccine skeptic, to run the federal agency in charge of the nation's vaccination policy.

Trump, instead, endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge. The Make America Healthy Again organization, which is closely aligned with Kennedy, raised money for Letlow.

Cassidy lost out in a closed party primary. He will leave the Senate in January when either Letlow or Jamie Davis, the Democratic candidate from Tensas Parish in the November congressional elections, will be sworn in.

“What is actually right and true”

Cassidy said he backed Kennedy because of promises to not significantly alter the federal government’s long-held guidance for immunizations and to confer regularly with the committee — promises that Kennedy didn’t keep. Cassidy has since raised ever-harsher criticisms about the Department of Health and Human Services since.

“I feel like we’ve got thousands of kids hospitalized because people have promoted that immunization is bad, and now kids have died because of it is…evil to do that,” Cassidy said at Wednesday’s hearing. “Will you have the ability to say no to junk science and to say yes to that which has been firmly established and to stick up for what is actually right and true as opposed to that which is superstition and prejudice?”

“You have my assurances that I will do that. I will never betray the science, ever,” Schwartz replied. “I will make sure that the CDC is focused on scientific rigor.”

She added that the CDC would focus on “radical transparency,” which is most important in restoring public trust.

But Schwartz supported many of Kennedy's policies. When asked if she would take down a page on the CDC website that suggests linkage between autism and vaccinations, Schwartz demurred, saying she hadn't seen it.

Turmoil at the CDC

Cassidy referenced Susan Monarez, who was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate as CDC director. She was forced out in August 2025 after only a month in office for refusing to endorse Kennedy’s picks for the panel of vaccine advisers, which included prominent anti-vaxxers.

The CDC has since been run by interim directors. About a quarter of the agency's staff was laid off or resigned since Trump began his second term in January 2025.

Trump nominated Schwartz in April. A doctor, lawyer, and retired rear admiral who oversaw the U.S. Coast Guard's 41 clinics and 150 sick bays, Schwartz was deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term.

Cassidy didn’t mention Kennedy or Trump by name but drilled down on actions taken at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, particularly at the CDC, a subsidiary agency that has the most direct oversight of how many vaccines are required at what ages.

“Parents should not have to guess whether information on the CDC’s website reflects the best available science rather than the preferences of political appointees. This is what has led to children being hospitalized and dying from diseases preventable with the vaccine,” Cassidy said. “As a result, we see thousands getting measles. We see, unfortunately, deaths from measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, just lying at the feet of folks casting misinformation on these issues.”

Johns Hopkins University counts 2,250 cases of measles confirmed so far this year in the U.S., where the extremely contagious virus had largely been eliminated through vaccinations. There were 2,289 cases last year. And the CDC is tracking thousands of people afflicted across dozens of states with cyclosporiasis and related cryptosporidiosis.

Overall, however, Cassidy also said Schwartz was qualified to run the CDC. The HELP committee will decide soon whether to recommend Schwartz’s nomination to the full Senate. She likely will be confirmed.