Washington-El Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., President of the Health Committee, is maintaining its cards near the vest, declining to elaborate after he said that he will carry out the “supervision” of the country’s senior health official and a recent shaking in the centers for disease control and prevention.
Cassidy, a doctor who has supported vaccines, is in a delicate position as the main Republican in the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee that provided a fundamental vote to confirm the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after ensuring guarantees on vaccines. Cassidy is also running for re -election next year.
Cassidy refused on Tuesday by saying if he regrets his vote for Kennedy or if he has confidence in him after Kennedy triggered the elimination of the director of the CDC Susan Monarez, which led to a series of renunciations of the main employees of the CDCs who accused Kennedy of undermining an influential vaccine committee.
“I am reserving the trial because we do not know who is right or bad,” Cassidy told NBC News in the Capitol. “But the president of the United States wants radical transparency. I totally agree with Donald J. Trump. We need radical transparency because what is at stake here is the health of children, and we must focus on those problems related to children.”
When asked what he referred to in a statement on Friday that his committee “will carry out supervision,” Cassidy said that his main concern is to address “the accusations that float” about the “health of children.”
“I’ve talked to several members of my Republican Caucus,” Cassidy said. “They also think that we must ensure that we are doing the right thing for the health of children.”
Kennedy is scheduled to appear on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee for a scheduled audience before Monaz was fired. The CDC shaking will surely become a question of questions, although Cassidy, who is also a member of the Finance Committee, would not say what he planned to ask Kennedy.
“I haven’t thought about my questions yet,” Cassidy said, adding that he and Kennedy “communicated for rest” but not for “the last two days.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican from Alaska, who is in the help committee, supported Cassidy calls to supervision.
“He did not please me at all when Susan Monarez was asked to resign and vacancies in the leadership that we now have in the CDC. I encourage me that President Cassidy wants to have some level of supervision within the committee of this,” he said. “I think that is important.”
Murkowski said he had begun to read Kennedy’s opinion article on the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, in which he defended his leadership over CDC and said he should focus again his mission on infectious diseases.
“To say that he wants to recover trust and credibility and return to the original CDC mission, hey, I have no problem focused on infectious diseases, making sure they have more epidemiologists there. We want to have this based on science,” he said. “At this time, you just don’t feel that way.”
Kennedy faces skepticism from other conservative senators.
Senator John Kennedy, Republican of La-La., Who also voted to confirm him, described the CDC on Tuesday as a “goat’s rodeo” with “too chaos”.
“We need to restore that trust, and so far, I don’t see where Secretary Kennedy has done,” Senator Kennedy said. “Everything I see there, at this time, is an accumulation of multiple facts. I do not say that Secretary Kennedy is wrong or correct. I am not a doctor. I am not qualified to say … when I met with Bobby in my office, I said, I said:” His work No. 1 is to restore the confidence of the US people and the public health institution in the United States. “And so far, he has not done that.
Senator Kevin Cramer, RN.D., said the CDCs “have had their challenges.”
“I think the president who shakes it is not, it shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone,” he said. “That said, the CDC, like most agencies, is better with some stability, so it is expected that the ship can be corrected: get the right people in leadership and move forward.”
But Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky. – Who aligns more with Secretary Kennedy in his criticisms of the vaccine rules and has celebrated the exodus of CDC officials, questioned Cassidy’s approach.
“He is taking a position that I think he is having problems defending himself,” said Paul, and added that he was on the side of Kennedy by sincere agreement: “This is not me just supporting the president.”
Meanwhile, the classification member in the Help Committee, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT., Has demanded a bipartisan investigation and an immediate public hearing on the recent dismissals and resignations of the CDC. He has also asked Kennedy to resign.
“The reality is that Secretary Kennedy has benefited and built a career to sow distrust of vaccines,” Sanders wrote in the New York Times. “Now, as head of HHS, he is using his authority to launch a war against science, about public health and truth.”
