U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) attends a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing with former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez (not pictured), who was ousted after resisting changes to vaccine policy that were advanced by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Senator Bill Cassidy on Wednesday when asked if Americans should have confidence in the decision if the CDC's new advisory panel makes recommendations to change the childhood vaccine schedule, said they should not.

Cassidy speaking to reporters said that the Hepatitis B shot, given at birth, had decreased the number of children with the disease from 20,000 per year to about 20. He also said that the vaccine schedule contained recommendations, not mandates.

(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Editing by Franklin Paul)