Republican senator Bill Cassidy has urged Donald Trump to be “radically honest” about vaccines, warning that doubts expressed by the president could lead to more measles infections, hospital admissions and deaths.
Measles cases in the US have reached their highest level in more than three decades this year. Mr Cassidy, a doctor from Louisiana, said the president should recognise the influence of his comments.
“I would just ask the president to be aware that people are listening to him — if he discourages immunization, there’ll be fewer people immunized,” he said. “If we’re speaking of measles, there’ll be more people sick in the hospital or even die.”
The Trump administration has encouraged parents to vaccinate their children against measles. However, Mr Trump has questioned the vaccine and its schedule, including through an executive order last month suggesting that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, known as MMR, should be given as three separate injections.
He has also claimed, without evidence, that the MMR vaccine could be “lethal” if it was not separated. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr Trump said he would demand that drug companies split childhood vaccines into five doses administered six months apart.
“The vaccine size will be much, much less,” he said, arguing that the change would lead “to a massive reduction in autism”. Mr Trump also said certain vaccines that “people are a little worried about” would be removed from the combination.
Mr Cassidy said he did not know which vaccines the president was referring to, but called for an explanation of the evidence behind his position.
“Have the president come forward — what is he basing this on? Who’s giving him advice?” he said.
“If you want to be radically honest, the vaccines are safe, they’ve been proven to be safe, and the current regimen has been timed to be most convenient to the parent,” Mr Cassidy added. “At any point, the parent can say, ‘I want something different.’”
He challenged Mr Trump to explain why he believed the vaccine was lethal, asking: “Have you ever seen a case of lethality?” He also pointed to people who had not been vaccinated and had become seriously ill or died.
Mr Cassidy cited recent measles-related deaths involving a 40-year-old and an 18-year-old. He compared spreading the disease to driving while drunk, saying that although people could choose to drink, driving afterwards could harm others.
“You can get measles, but when you start spreading it to other people, a 40-year-old dies, an 18-year-old dies, children in a neonatal intensive care unit are at risk,” he said. “The president should be saying, ‘Be vaccinated. It is safe and effective.’”
Mr Cassidy chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is due to leave office early next year after Mr Trump endorsed his Republican challenger.
Asked what he wanted to hear from Heidi Overton, the president’s nominee for FDA commissioner, at her hearing this week, Mr Cassidy said she needed to understand that calling the measles vaccine lethal was “absurd”.
He also praised Nicole Saphier, Mr Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, after she said at a committee hearing that the MMR vaccine was not lethal and encouraged people to be vaccinated. Mr Cassidy said she had earned his vote.
