STAT+: Senate Republicans draw a red line on vaccines even as they advance RFK Jr.

WASHINGTON — The moves on Tuesday by two powerful Republican senators were strikingly contradictory: Bill Cassidy (La.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) defended the importance of vaccines. At the same time, they voted to advance one of the country’s leading vaccine critics to the Trump administration’s top health care role.

Their actions paved the way for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to win Senate confirmation to run the Department of Health and Human Services as soon as next week.

Tillis paired his yes vote on the Senate Finance Committee with a warning: “The only way that Bobby Kennedy and I will get crosswise is if he does actually take a position against the safety of proven vaccines.”

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…