WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called President Trump's executive order restructuring the childhood vaccine schedule "a stupid thing to do" Sunday, arguing the directive will increase costs for families, raise insurance premiums and do nothing to improve child health outcomes. Cassidy, a physician, made the remarks during an appearance on ABC News' "This Week."
At the center of Cassidy's objection is the order's directive to split the combined MMR vaccine — which protects against measles, mumps and rubella — into three separate shots. Because the CDC currently recommends two doses of the combined vaccine, separating it means children would need six injections total instead of two, doubling the required doctor visits and multiplying insurance claims accordingly.
"Instead of your child getting two shots, she has to get six shots. Instead of you missing work to take your child to the doctor two times, you're doing it six times, and instead of the insurance company paying for two visits, it's now paying for six visits," Cassidy said. "This is going to drive up the cost of your life, inconvenience you tremendously, and your child's getting six jabs, not two."
Cassidy said the MMR combination was created precisely to avoid this outcome. "The reason the MMR vaccine was combined in the first place was to make it more convenient for the parent, to make fewer jabs for the child," he said. He added that Trump's order reverses a decades-old public health decision without scientific justification.
Trump signed the executive order Monday, framing it as a step toward reducing the childhood vaccination schedule. During the Oval Office signing, he repeatedly linked the MMR vaccine to autism — a claim researchers have studied extensively without establishing any connection. Cassidy rejected that premise directly. "There's no evidence that vaccines cause autism, which I think is where this is supposed to come from, so it's stupid policy," he said.
To reinforce the point, Cassidy cited Jay Bhattacharya, the current director of the National Institutes of Health, saying Bhattacharya has also said there is no connection between vaccines and autism. "There's no evidence whatsoever" that vaccines cause autism, Cassidy said, calling the autism link a theory that has been "thoroughly disproven."
Cassidy said the policy diverts attention and resources away from genuine research into autism's causes. "We've got to have compassion for those families who have a child with autism. Believe me, I'm a doctor. I've treated patients. I understand the kind of trauma that this brings to a family," he said. "Instead of spending resources, effort, and attention trying to truly find what is truly the cause of autism, or how to truly prevent it, we're in this little cul-de-sac of something which has been thoroughly disproven."
The senator was equally blunt on the politics. He tied the order directly to the president's declining approval numbers, arguing the White House has lost touch with the financial realities facing American families. "This is why the president's poll numbers are down, because you've lost sight of affordability for the parent, you've lost sight of the convenience for the American family, you've lost sight of that which is driving higher costs in healthcare," Cassidy said. In a separate CNN appearance the same Sunday, he described the order as "crazy, stupid" and said the president "does not appear to understand Americans' financial pressures."
Cassidy made a direct cost argument beyond the added co-pays: he said higher utilization from splitting vaccines into more visits will push insurance premiums up across the board. "The parents are going to lose money directly. And indirectly, premiums are going up, which works against affordability," he said. "The president's proposal is going to end up with more children being sick."
Cassidy's standing on health policy is not marginal. He played a leading role in the Senate confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. making his public break with the administration on this specific issue notable within the Republican caucus. He is also a practicing physician, giving his clinical objections weight that a typical lawmaker's critique would not carry.
The CDC's current schedule calls for the first MMR dose between 12 and 15 months of age and the second between four and six years old. That two-dose, two-visit regimen is the established standard that Trump's order effectively dismantles by recommending the three constituent vaccines be administered separately — tripling the number of shots at each recommended interval and doubling the total number of clinic visits over a child's early years.
