Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) delivered a dire warning Wednesday as the United States battles its worst measles outbreak in 35 years, saying the crisis is “going to be a terrible legacy for this administration.”
“Misinformation and misguided policies are leaving children and adults unprotected against disease that we know how to prevent,” Cassidy said during a confirmation hearing for three Trump administration health nominees, according to The Washington Post.
The physician and Senate health committee chair pointed to four measles-associated deaths reported in Pennsylvania this year. Nationwide cases have reached their highest level since 1991, the Post said.
“It deeply concerns me to see politicians giving medical advice which has zero scientific backing,” Cassidy said. “Scaring mothers into delaying or even altogether skipping their child’s vaccine is wrong, and it makes America sicker, not healthier.”
His remarks came after President Donald Trump ordered officials to consider cutting the number of recommended childhood vaccines and breaking the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots, the Post reported Wednesday. Trump has called the combined vaccine “quite lethal” without offering scientific backing.
But Trump’s surgeon general nominee, Nicole Saphier, broke sharply from that claim under questioning from Cassidy.
“I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism,” Saphier said. She added that she also does not consider the MMR vaccine lethal, calling it “our greatest tool for combating measles infections.”
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