Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, said any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees seeking Senate confirmation should “stay away” from efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven treatments are not just ignorant — they are dangerous,” McConnell said in a statement on Friday. “Anyone seeking Senate confirmation to serve in the next administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of being associated with such efforts.”
The 82-year-old lawmaker’s statement appeared to be directed at Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one of his advisers had filed a petition to revoke approval of the polio vaccine in 2022. It is widely believed to have stopped the disease in most of the world.
McConnell’s words were a signal that Kennedy, who has long pushed the false idea that vaccines cause autism, may face some resistance in the soon-to-be GOP-controlled Senate.
“Kennedy believes the polio vaccine should be available to the public and studied thoroughly and properly,” Katie Miller, a Kennedy transition spokeswoman, said in response to questions.
The New York Times reported that the petition was filed by a lawyer who is now helping Kennedy select nominees for federal health positions in the next administration.
Any individual or company can petition the FDA, which typically receives hundreds of applications at any given time related to various food, drug, and medical issues. Most of the petitions were denied, but the FDA must respond to each in writing.
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Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory tests and in real-world use on hundreds of millions of people over decades – and are considered among the most effective public health measures in history.
According to the statement, McConnell contracted polio when he was two years old, but survived thanks to “the miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love.” He praised the “saving power” of the polio vaccine “for the millions who came after me.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an life.
He said Kennedy should clarify his position on that.
Trump announced his choice of Kennedy last month, saying Kennedy would work to protect Americans “from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives.”
But the choice has been met with concern from scientists and public health officials, who fear Kennedy will cancel life-saving public health initiatives like vaccines.
Kennedy has pushed other conspiracy theories regarding vaccines, such as that the coronavirus could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, comments he later said were taken out of context. He has repeatedly brought up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public health mandates.
Kennedy said he plans to reshape the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency with a sprawling scope and a $1.3 trillion budget, if approved. He has suggested that the FDA is beholden to “Big Pharma,” and his anti-vaccine nonprofit has called on them to stop using COVID-19 vaccines.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, his nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to halt the use of all COVID vaccines. The group claimed that the FDA is beholden to “Big Pharma” because it receives a large portion of its budget from industry fees and some employees who left the agency went to work for drugmakers.
Children’s Health Defense currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took a leave of absence from the group when he announced his candidacy for president but was listed as one of its lawyers in the lawsuit.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
