Robert S. Kiefner is a retired family physician living in Concord. 

During the two days of Senate hearings relative to the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) applied his knowledge as a physician to seriously challenge the clownish conspiracy theorist on his longstanding, dangerous anti-vax positions.

In the absence of any bona fide science, Kennedy has perpetuated his own myths about the dangers of vaccines while gaining the accolades and financial rewards worthy of any modern cult leader. His cousin, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, has called Kennedy a “predator,” while noting that “he lacks any relevant government, financial, management or medical experience.” Further, she warned, “his views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed.”

During the hearings, Kennedy alternately denied and fessed up to his history of outrageous statements about Lyme disease being created by the United States military as a bioweapon, about HIV being created when children are vaccinated for other diseases and about swine and avian flu having been fabricated by the World Health Organization to control the public.

As if being characterologically challenged and scientifically clueless were not enough, Kennedy repeatedly revealed his complete lack of comprehension of Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and Medicare, specifically the differences between Medicare Parts A,B and C.

It’s astounding that a person nominated to manage the $1.7 trillion HHS budget does not know his a, b, c’s.

Kennedy has stated that, as the director of HHS, he would “take a break from focusing on infectious disease for a short time, maybe eight years, to focus on chronic disease.” To deemphasize infectious disease makes perfect sense with a tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas, a measles surge in Texas, smoldering COVID, avian flu (which might be a mutation or two away from becoming the next pandemic), dengue fever spreading to our shores and periodic encores of viral hemorrhagic fevers, like Ebola, just a few hours away by plane.

President Trump, Vice President Vance and Elon Musk have preempted Kennedy’s lunacy by withdrawing from the WHO, dismantling USAID, slashing research, jobs and funding at the National Institutes of Health and undermining university funding for medical research.

Cassidy’s questioning was crisp and targeted, complemented with his personal testament to the enormous value of vaccines. With Kennedy’s lame and baffling responses, it certainly seemed that Cassidy’s critical vote would torpedo the nomination.

After all, as a physician, he took the Hippocratic Oath, which states in part that “I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk” and “I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.” Further, physicians should be living by the oath to their patients: “First, do no harm.” And then, as a U.S. senator, Cassidy took an oath of office stating he would “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”

On the day of Kennedy’s confirmation vote, Cassidy read a five-page rationalization of his supportive vote, taking the assurances of a seasoned charlatan that he would team up with Cassidy to make tough HHS decisions and to protect current vaccine programs.

What would compel a thoughtful, moderate, Republican senator — a physician, no less — to set the record for violating so many sacred oaths over the course of a day? Cassidy has stated that his vote for Kennedy was in support of the Trump agenda going forward, and Cassidy in particular has lots of presidential butt-kissing to do to make up for his vote to convict Trump of instigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

To take an oath requires a high degree of honor, courage and commitment, as U.S. Navy core values dictate. Conversely, to compromise an oath denotes a lack of honor, a loss of courage and an absence of commitment. Is Sen. Cassidy’s denial of his sacred oaths born of distorted ideology, a major moral lapse, political expediency or fear of retribution? We are left to speculate, but feel free to pick more than one.

I have highlighted Sen. Cassidy’s medical and political malpractice here because my fellow physicians and healthcare providers are gravely concerned about the future health and well-being of our patients and our democracy, given the galactically inane confirmations of Kennedy and other cabinet picks. The odd assortment of Republican Congressional windsocks and billionaires stand in line to enable an authoritarian president, who now freely operates unencumbered by checks and balances.

Their only oaths nowadays are mandatory oaths of loyalty to a dictator. Our choice is either to have a band of callous miscreants dictate policy or to embrace and act upon our ability to think and act freely.