{"id":154066,"date":"2025-09-13T14:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T14:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/154066\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T14:38:08","slug":"cassidy-calls-on-rfk-jr-to-publicly-support-whooping-cough-vaccine-amid-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/154066\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassidy calls on RFK Jr. to publicly support whooping cough vaccine amid outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to publicly support the whooping cough vaccine as Louisiana experiences one of the worst outbreaks<\/a> in recent history.<\/p>\n

In 2024, six times the number of whooping cough \u2014 or pertussis \u2014 cases were recorded than the prior year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cases peaked in November 2024, but they have remained high since then.<\/p>\n

Louisiana has seen elevated cases this year, with two infants dying of whooping cough in April. In a letter to Kennedy, Cassidy noted the secretary had spoken about the benefits<\/a> of MMR vaccines during the measles outbreak in West Texas earlier this year. Kennedy has long speculated<\/a> on the possible negative side effects of MMR vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you acknowledged, \u2018measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness with certain health risks, especially to unvaccinated individuals.\u2019 The same is true for pertussis. Among those hospitalized in Louisiana, 75 percent were either unvaccinated or not up to date on pertussis vaccinations,\u201d the Louisiana Republican wrote.<\/p>\n

The Hill has reached out to Department of Health and Human Services for comment.<\/p>\n

Infections can be prevented with a DTaP vaccine, which can be administered in early childhood, or with a Tdap vaccine, which can be given to older children and adults, including expecting mothers who can confer some protection to newborns by receiving the shot during their pregnancy. Both vaccines provide protection against<\/a> tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to work together to stop pertussis. Your strong public support for this vaccine will save lives,\u201d Cassidy added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour words are a powerful tool in protecting the health of the American people. Families responded to your decisive leadership when you clearly promoted the MMR vaccine to stop the outbreak in West Texas,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey would respond again to your call that the DTaP vaccine is the best way to protect our babies. We can ensure that no child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s request comes about a week after he and Kennedy got into a heated exc<\/a>h<\/a>ange<\/a> over the latter\u2019s vaccine policy changes. At a Senate hearing, Cassidy once again brought up concerns<\/a> about restricted access to COVID-19 vaccines, as well as possible conflicts of interest within the recently remade vaccine panel at the CDC.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called on Health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2797,23715,94525,97,32812,6098,94527,19787,788,94526,94524],"class_list":["post-154066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bill-cassidy","tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","tag-dtap-vaccine","tag-health","tag-health-and-human-services","tag-louisiana","tag-measles-outbreak","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-whooping-cough","tag-whooping-cough-vaccine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}