Almost as if to openly deny the political reality he’s already clearly accepted, Bill Cassidy just threw himself up against a political wall late last week. Joe Cunningham, writing at KPEL’s website, notes that Cassidy is now in a fight with Louisiana’s Surgeon General Ralph Abraham over vaccinations…

Louisiana Takes a Stand on Vaccines

The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) announced last week that it would be moving away from promoting vaccines and holding mass vaccination events – including for COVID-19 and influenza.

Louisiana’s Surgeon General, Dr. Ralph Abraham, made the announcement on February 13 in an LDH press release. Rather than promoting those vaccines and holding major events, state health workers will provide vaccine data and encourage individuals to consult their personal healthcare providers.

The decision comes at a time when Louisiana is suffering a major flu outbreak, with one of the highest percent positive rates in the country. The state is routinely under-vaccinated for the flu, and respiratory illnesses have a major impact each year.

Cassidy Criticizes Louisiana’s Policy

But not every elected Republican in Louisiana is for the change in policy.

Senator Bill Cassidy, also a doctor, criticized the move, saying parents who want to get their child immunized “can’t get in to see the doctor.”

“Working parents suddenly realize their child needs to be immunized and they can’t get in to see the doctor,” he argued. “It may be six weeks or longer for a routine visit. That is why as a doctor, I ran large-scale immunization programs to bring health care and immunizations to the patient.”

He went on to advocate for vaccine fairs and promoting vaccines.

“Things like vaccine fairs keep a child from having to miss school and a mother from having to miss work. That is the reality of today’s medicine. To say that cannot occur and that someone must wait for the next available appointment ignores that reality,” the senator said.

Cassidy, R-La., said that advertising where vaccines are available can help parents keep their children healthy.

“Removing these resources for parents is not a stand for parents’ rights. It prevents making health care more convenient and available for people who are very busy,” he said.

Cassidy’s comments don’t include references to local and chain pharmacies, which also frequently promote vaccinations and provide them on-site. Several job sites, public and private, also provide vaccinations through in-house events.

Bear in mind that Abraham didn’t come out against vaccinations, he just said the state was going to stop pushing the COVID vaccine on the public, which given the rather frightening results that jab has generated, particularly among young people, is warranted.

And given the less-than-stellar track record of the various flu vaccines, the state was going back to a get-it-if-you-want-it approach to that.

In other words, natural herd immunity, which together with exercise, healthier diets and things like vitamin D and zinc tend to do pretty well in fighting off disease without having to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money on pharmaceuticals.

Which is the message Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services and whose confirmation Bill Cassidy spent last week bragging about his role in bringing about, has championed for quite some time.

Make America Healthy Again is about fighting off disease by having a healthier immune system and constitution. It isn’t about vaccinations and taking pills.

Cassidy’s attack on Abraham shows he wasn’t sincere in his vote for Kennedy’s confirmation. That’s hardly earth-shaking; everybody knew he was simply doing what he had to do not to inflame the public against him.

But you’d think he’d hold on to that con for a couple of days so folks wouldn’t still be paying attention when he departed from it. And Cassidy couldn’t do that. And now everybody sees how insincere he was.

We’re not offended by Cassidy’s vaccine stance. We question whether he’s right, but he might be. What we object to here is how utterly sloppy and incompetent the politics is. It’s like the right and left hands of his political operation don’t know what each other are doing.

Our buddy Moon Griffon keeps calling him “Psycho Bill.” This is not an example of Moon being wrong.