GOP Sen. Cassidy says measles surge will be administration’s ‘terrible legacy’

September 20, 2026 3oliver

Senate Health Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La. (Getty Images)

Senate Health Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., on Wednesday criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the nation’s measles outbreaks, calling the recent deaths from the disease a “terrible legacy.”

“Misinformation and misguided policies are leaving children unprotected against diseases we know how to prevent,” Cassidy said during a confirmation hearing for three Department of Health and Human Services nominees.

The U.S. is experiencing its largest measles outbreak in decades, with cases surpassing a 35-year record. Pennsylvania officials said Tuesday that four people had died from measles-associated complications.

“No one should be hospitalized, much less die. By the way, CDC apparently is working on the definition of death by measles,” Cassidy said.

“Someone said we haven’t had to work on that for decades because no one has died from measles, and now we have people dying from measles. That’s going to be a terrible legacy for this administration.”

Cassidy, a physician, pressed surgeon general nominee Dr. Nicole Saphier on her views of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, telling her not to equivocate.

“I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles,” Saphier responded.

Asked what she would tell a mother concerned that the MMR vaccine causes autism, Saphier said, “I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism.”

The exchange comes as President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have pursued changes to longstanding federal vaccine policies.

Trump last month ordered his administration to move toward offering the MMR vaccine as three separate shots once individual products become available and, when feasible, administering childhood vaccines at separate medical visits.

The administration’s approach differs from established evidence on the MMR vaccine.

Trump has said the combined MMR vaccine could be “quite lethal.”

“It deeply concerns me to see politicians giving medical advice which has zero scientific backing,” Cassidy said.

“Scaring mothers into delaying or even altogether skipping their child’s vaccines is wrong and makes America sicker not healthier,” he added.

Kennedy has also overseen a broader reassessment of federal vaccine policy.

HHS has reconstituted the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and ended federal investment in numerous mRNA vaccine projects, with Kennedy arguing that federal health agencies need greater scrutiny of vaccine safety and effectiveness.

The administration has also reopened debate over vaccines and autism.

A CDC webpage updated under the current HHS leadership says the department is investigating possible causal links between some infant vaccines and autism, while acknowledging that reviews of the MMR vaccine have found strong evidence against an association with autism.

Cassidy expressed regret Wednesday over giving previous administration nominees “wiggle room” when questioning them about vaccines, saying they had “later used that wiggle room to do things which were quite contrary.”