GOP Senator Blasts Trump Vaccine Order as Stupid

"Let's just take it from the perspective of the parent," Cassidy told CNN. "Now, instead of going to the doctor twice to get their child vaccinated, they have to go six times … Instead of mom or dad missing work twice, you know, coming out of their pocket, if you will, to take their child to the doctor, they have to miss work or take vacation or personal leave six times. This is inconvenient. It's going to contribute to an increased loss of income."

"The president's proposal is going to end up with more children being sick," Cassidy said. "And so who wants that? No one should want that."

Asked about Trump's claim that nothing bad could come of the order, Cassidy told CNN's Jake Tapper: "If it wasn't so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing at a comment like that." He added: "As a physician who has seen people either die or get seriously ill from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, this has the potential to decrease the protection that a child would receive against diseases which can be deadly." Of Trump's remarks on the vaccine, Cassidy said: "Yeah, that's a crazy, stupid thing."

On ABC, Cassidy tied it to the president's standing: "This is why the president's poll numbers are down, because you've lost sight of affordability for the parent, you've lost sight of the convenience for the American family, you've lost sight of that which is driving higher costs in health care."

The White House defends the order. Spokesman Kush Desai said the administration's efforts on the MMR vaccine "will give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases."

Drugmakers were noncommittal. "To date, there has been no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots," Merck said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press. Merck and GSK both said they stand by the safety and effectiveness of their products; neither discussed plans to unbundle their shots.

Dr. Anna Durbin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told the AP: "We do things that are less convenient and more expensive if there's a good reason to do it. There is no good justification for this. I think it's very bad public health policy." She added that as visits pile up, "it's going to be less convenient, more expensive and you're going to have fewer people getting vaccinated."