{"id":23334,"date":"2025-03-06T01:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T02:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23334"},"modified":"2025-03-06T02:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T02:27:01","slug":"cod-liver-oil-vaccines-a-g-o-p-skeptic-confronts-kennedys-fine-line-on-measles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23334","title":{"rendered":"Cod Liver Oil? Vaccines? A G.O.P. Skeptic Confronts Kennedy\u2019s Fine Line on Measles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor and Republican of Louisiana, is embracing \u201cthe gestalt\u201d of Kennedy\u2019s measles response.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps no vote was as agonizing for Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and medical doctor, than his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump\u2019s health secretary. Mr. Cassidy wondered aloud for days how Mr. Kennedy, the nation\u2019s most vocal and powerful critic of vaccinations, might handle an infectious disease crisis.<\/p>\n

Now, as a measles outbreak rages in West Texas, Mr. Cassidy has found out. It all comes down, he said, to \u201cthe gestalt.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, days after the Texas outbreak killed an unvaccinated child, Mr. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, was clipping down a Capitol corridor when he was asked about Mr. Kennedy. He pointed to a Fox News Digital opinion piece<\/a> in which Mr. Kennedy advised parents to consult their doctors about vaccination, while calling it a \u201cpersonal\u201d decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Fox editorial was very much encouraging people to get vaccinated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reminded that Mr. Kennedy had described it as a personal choice, Mr. Cassidy thought for a moment. \u201cIf you want to like, parse it down to the line, you can say, \u2018Discuss with your doctor,\u2019\u201d Mr. Cassidy said. \u201cHe also said, \u2018We\u2019re making vaccinations available. We\u2019re doing this for vaccination. We\u2019re doing that for vaccination.\u2019 So if you take the gestalt of it, the gestalt was, \u2018Let\u2019s get vaccinated!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Cassidy\u2019s assessment \u2014 that the whole of Mr. Kennedy\u2019s message was more than the sum of its parts \u2014 reflects how the measles outbreak has put a spotlight on how Mr. Trump\u2019s unorthodox choice to run the country\u2019s top health agency has brought a once-fringe perspective into the political mainstream, creating discomfort for some Republicans.<\/p>\n

As the founder and chairman of his nonprofit, Children\u2019s Health Defense, and later as a presidential candidate, Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed the benefits of vaccination. He has also repeatedly suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism, despite extensive research that has found no link.<\/p>\n

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After voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor and Republican of Louisiana, is embracing \u201cthe gestalt\u201d of Kennedy\u2019s measles response.Perhaps no vote was as agonizing for Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and medical doctor, than his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump\u2019s health secretary. Mr. Cassidy wondered aloud for days how Mr. Kennedy, the nation\u2019s most vocal and powerful critic of vaccinations, might handle an infectious disease crisis.Now, as a measles outbreak rages in West Texas, Mr. Cassidy has found out. It all comes down, he said, to \u201cthe gestalt.\u201dOn Monday, days after the Texas outbreak killed an unvaccinated child, Mr. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, was clipping down a Capitol corridor when he was asked about Mr. Kennedy. He pointed to a Fox News Digital opinion piece in which Mr. Kennedy advised parents to consult their doctors about vaccination, while calling it a \u201cpersonal\u201d decision.\u201cThat Fox editorial was very much encouraging people to get vaccinated,\u201d he said.Reminded that Mr. Kennedy had described it as a personal choice, Mr. Cassidy thought for a moment. \u201cIf you want to like, parse it down to the line, you can say, \u2018Discuss with your doctor,\u2019\u201d Mr. Cassidy said. \u201cHe also said, \u2018We\u2019re making vaccinations available. We\u2019re doing this for vaccination. We\u2019re doing that for vaccination.\u2019 So if you take the gestalt of it, the gestalt was, \u2018Let\u2019s get vaccinated!\u2019\u201dMr. Cassidy\u2019s assessment \u2014 that the whole of Mr. Kennedy\u2019s message was more than the sum of its parts \u2014 reflects how the measles outbreak has put a spotlight on how Mr. Trump\u2019s unorthodox choice to run the country\u2019s top health agency has brought a once-fringe perspective into the political mainstream, creating discomfort for some Republicans.As the founder and chairman of his nonprofit, Children\u2019s Health Defense, and later as a presidential candidate, Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed the benefits of vaccination. He has also repeatedly suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism, despite extensive research that has found no link.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23336,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23337,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334\/revisions\/23337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}