Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees seeking confirmation should “come clear” of efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven treatments are not only ill-informed — they are dangerous,” McConnell said in a statement Friday. “Anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of conniving with such efforts.”
The 82-year-old lawyer’s statement appeared to be directed at Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after reports that one of his advisers had filed a petition to revoke the approval of the 2022 polio vaccine. they signaled that Kennedy, who has long promoted the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism, may soon face opposition from GOP administration. The Senate.
“Mr. “Kennedy believes that the Polio Vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly researched,” said Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for Kennedy’s transition, in response to questions.
The New York Times reported Friday that a lawyer helping Kennedy choose health candidates has filed a petition to have the government revoke approval of the polio vaccine — widely believed to have stopped the disease in many parts of the world — again. halt the distribution of several other vaccines. The Washington Post also confirmed the request. The AP has not independently verified the request, which was filed in 2022, according to the Times.
Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory tests and in real-world use on hundreds of millions of people over decades – they are considered the most successful public health measures in history.
McConnell contracted polio at age two but survived, he said Friday, thanks to “a miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love.” He praised the “saving power” of the polio vaccine to “millions who followed me.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also responded Friday to the Times report. In a letter to X, formerly of Twitter, he called it “offensive and dangerous for the Trump Transition people to try to end the polio vaccine that has eradicated polio in America and saved millions of lives.” He asked Kennedy to clarify his position on it.
Trump nominated Kennedy last month, saying he would work to protect Americans from “harmful chemicals, pollution, pesticides, pharmaceutical products and food additives.” But his nomination was immediately met with consternation from scientists and public health officials, who feared that Kennedy would end programs that save the public’s health, such as vaccines.
Kennedy advanced other conspiracy theories about vaccines, such as that Covid-19 could be “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, comments he later said were taken out of context. He repeatedly brought up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public health directives.
Kennedy said he plans to remake the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency with a broad reach and a budget of USD 1.3 trillion, if he is approved. He suggested that the Food and Drug Administration is seen as “big pharma,” and his anti-vaccination nonprofit has called on it to stop using Covid-19 vaccines.
During the Covid-19 crisis, his non-profit group, Children’s Health Defense, urged the FDA to halt the use of all Covid vaccines. The group alleged that the FDA is seen as “big pharma” because it gets most of its budget from industry money and some employees have left the agency to work for drugmakers.
Children’s Health Defense currently has a lawsuit against several news organizations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify false information, including the Covid-19 and Covid-19 vaccine. Kennedy took a break from the party when he announced that he would run for president but was listed as one of its lawyers in the case.
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