After a week of prep collecting quotes of Trump and others saying terrible things, we’re veering to accentuate the positive instead, thanks to yet another bad day in court for this administration and Bobby Junior in particular.
The headlines tell you that a federal judge sidelined Kennedy’s recent decision to pare down the longstanding HHS-recommended childhood vaccine schedule from 17 to 11.
That’s true — but wait, there’s more. The original suit was over the HHS’s COVID vax recommendations. Plaintiffs only expanded the scope when HHS went after the childhood schedule.
The beauty of the decision, and a fine example of why Trump and lackeys hate the courts, is in the simplicity of the core accusation and the acknowledgement of its legitimacy.
Plaintiff claim: HHS is supposed to use science to do its work. Not only did it not science adequately in making these decisions, but Bobby Junior compromised its mission by naming its latest batch of members to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Ruling: Yep. So not only is the COVID vax change sidelined, and not only is the slashed childhood vax recommendation sidelined, but for the moment, the ACIP itself is barred from doing further damage work.
Which will save children’s lives, somewhere, at least while this temporary ruling is in effect. That’s worth another musical interlude.
But enough with the sprinkles and rainbows. Let’s take a second to shame Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has significant public health experience and could’ve kept Bobby Junior out of this post altogether with a single rational Republican “no” vote when this nomination was still in committee.
The real kick in the pants today is to look back at the last remaining mental hurdle that Cassidy had to clear in order to vote for this wormbrain:
In particular, Cassidy was worried about a potential measles outbreak if Kennedy were to assume control of America’s health agencies and continue to raise doubt about the vaccine, which had been used for decades to prevent the highly contagious and potentially deadly childhood disease.
“He needed something to just let him feel comfortable enough that he wouldn’t be responsible for the death of children because of this,” the person told ABC News of Cassidy’s concerns.
Yeah, Senator, it’d really suck to know you could have personally steered the country around one of those but chickened out, wouldn’t it? South Carolina alone is now this close to 1,000 cases in its ongoing outbreak; somebody send Cassidy a muffin basket and a measles lollipop.
Bigger picture, this order lands atop other recent court embarrassments for the administration, which had tried to use the law to bully Americans like this flag-burning veteran and more notably, abuse the DOJ to bully the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
It’s never a sure thing, but the courts can insist on a level of reality that Congress and of course the executive branch can brush off with regularity. Amid so many bad days on so many levels, Monday was a good day for the nation’s health. Onward.