GOP Senator Melts Down, Lashes Out At Trump Administration Over New Policy

Sen. Bill Cassidy ripped the CDC on Friday for moving toward new guidance that would scrap routine hepatitis B shots for newborns, blasting the proposal as “a mistake” and warning it will send infection rates back in the wrong direction.

The Louisiana Republican sounded off after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to back a shift that would leave the HBV birth dose up to “individual-based decision-making” between parents and their doctors. The panel also recommended that children who skip the birth dose shouldn’t get their first HBV shot until they’re at least 2 months old.

Cassidy, who worked for decades as a liver specialist, didn’t mince words.

“As a liver doctor who has treated patients with hepatitis B for decades, this change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake,” he wrote on X. “The hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective. The birth dose is a recommendation, NOT a mandate.”

He pointed to the days before the recommendation existed, when 20,000 newborns a year contracted hepatitis B. Today, he noted, that number has dropped to fewer than 20.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again,” Cassidy said. “This makes America sicker. Acting CDC Director O’Neill should not sign these new recommendations and instead retain the current, evidence-based approach.”

Cassidy also took a swing at attorney Aaron Siri, who has represented HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and has pushed legal challenges aimed at stopping certain vaccines. Cassidy said Siri “is a trial attorney who makes his living suing vaccine manufacturers” and warned that he is “presenting as if an expert on childhood vaccines.”

“The ACIP is totally discredited. They are not protecting children,” Cassidy wrote.
The senator has taken a hard line on vaccine policy before. In August, he slammed an HHS decision to slash funding for mRNA vaccine development, arguing it ran counter to President Donald Trump’s push to strengthen the country’s health readiness.

Neither Cassidy’s office nor the CDC responded to requests for comment.

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