NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with Jennifer Herricks, the founding father of Louisiana Households for Vaccines, a bunch that organized a letter asking Sen. Invoice Cassidy to denounce RFK Jr.’s HHS nomination.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK, we need to flip now to focus a bit extra on that key vote from Republican Senator Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana. As we all know, Cassidy is a medical physician, and he raised deep considerations final week about Kennedy’s previous feedback on vaccines. Cassidy mentioned that he is apprehensive concerning the function these feedback might play in mother and father selecting whether or not to vaccinate their kids.
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BILL CASSIDY: I simply had a pal textual content me – two kids died in an intensive care unit in a Baton Rouge hospital from vaccine-preventable illnesses this previous month. So my concern is that if there’s any false word, any undermining of a mama’s belief in vaccines, one other particular person will die from a vaccine-preventable illness. Now, you’ve got acquired a megaphone.
CHANG: Nicely, a bunch of 100 physicians wrote Senator Invoice Cassidy an open letter asking him to denounce Kennedy’s nomination, arguing that Kennedy’s place on vaccines makes him unfit to guide HHS. Jennifer Herricks is the founding father of Louisiana Households for Vaccines, the group that organized that letter. She joins us now. Welcome.
JENNIFER HERRICKS: Thanks for having me.
CHANG: Nicely, thanks for being with us. So let me ask you – how are you feeling about Senator Cassidy’s committee vote in the present day, given the considerations he had beforehand expressed as a doctor, not simply as a lawmaker?
HERRICKS: Yeah. Upset would not appear to actually be the fitting phrase however feeling confused proper now however positively past disillusioned.
CHANG: Nicely, actual fast, are you able to simply briefly inform us somewhat bit about your group’s work, Louisiana Households for Vaccines?
HERRICKS: Positive. I might like to. So Louisiana Households for Vaccines shaped in 2022. We noticed, you already know, there have been loads of payments arising on the state stage with regard to vaccine coverage that had been fairly regarding. And actually, once we had been watching, you already know, hearings occurring on the state stage, we did not see the voice of on a regular basis households actually represented. And we all know that almost all of households in Louisiana and in different states select to vaccinate. And so, you already know, we determined to prepare and to assist these households get their voices heard. In 2022, within the state of Louisiana, there have been 39 anti-vaccine payments that went to the state legislature. And, you already know, we had loads of success that yr. We had been capable of cease 38 of these within the legislature, and one was vetoed by the governor.
CHANG: Let me ask you – simply to return to Senator Cassidy – as a result of he defined his committee vote on the ground of the Senate in the present day, saying that, you already know, he plans to verify in with Kennedy a number of occasions a month if he’s confirmed to be secretary of HHS, that he’ll maintain HHS accountable in his personal place as chair of the Senate Well being Committee. Do any of these private reassurances alleviate any of your considerations about Kennedy being on the helm of that division?
HERRICKS: No, they do not. Mr. Kennedy has a historical past of claiming one factor and turning round and doing one other. He additionally, you already know, denies issues that he has mentioned and achieved up to now which were dangerous and which have triggered direct hurt to households right here in the US and in different nations. Samoa is a good instance.
CHANG: Nicely, as a vaccine advocate equivalent to your self, how do you see your work altering or reshaping below the second Trump administration and below a secretary of HHS, Kennedy?
HERRICKS: Yeah. I believe, you already know, sadly, we could also be heading in direction of a time the place we see a few of these illnesses that, you already know, individuals of my era did not ever – by no means noticed, by no means needed to expertise. And I believe it’ll be extra vital for households and for folks to actually begin to communicate up and to advocate for themselves and for his or her kids now so greater than ever.
CHANG: Jennifer Herricks is the founding father of Louisiana Households for Vaccines. Thanks very a lot for becoming a member of us.
HERRICKS: Thanks for having me.
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