WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees seeking confirmation should “refrain” from efforts to discredit the polio vaccine to take.
“Attempts to undermine public confidence in proven treatments are not only uninformed — they are dangerous,” McConnell said in a statement Friday. “Anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the next administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of association with such efforts.”
The 82-year-old lawmaker’s statement appeared to be directed at Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., following a report that one of his advisers had filed a petition to revoke approval for the 2022 polio vaccine . A sign that Kennedy, who has long pushed the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism, could face resistance in the soon-to-be Republican Party-controlled Senate.
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“Sir. Kennedy believes the polio vaccine should be available to the public and should be thoroughly and well studied,” Katie Miller, Kennedy’s transition spokeswoman, said in response to questions.
The New York Times reported Friday that a lawyer helping Kennedy select candidates for official health positions has filed a petition seeking to have the government reconsider approving the polio vaccine — widely believed to prevent the disease in most parts of the world. world has stopped – to withdraw. suspending distribution of several other vaccines. The Washington Post also confirmed the petition. According to the Times, the AP has not independently confirmed the petition, which was filed in 2022.
Vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective in laboratory testing and real-world use in hundreds of millions of people for decades – considered one of the most effective public health measures in history.
McConnell contracted polio at age 2 but survived, he said Friday, 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.”
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also responded to the Times report on Friday. In a post on
He called on Kennedy to clarify his own position on the matter.
Trump nominated Kennedy last month, saying he would work to protect Americans “from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food additives.”
But his appointment was immediately met with concern from scientists and public health officials, who feared Kennedy would scale back life-saving public health initiatives such as vaccines.
Kennedy has advanced other conspiracy theories related to vaccines, such as that COVID-19 could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese, with comments he later said taken out of context. He has repeatedly brought up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public health mandates.
Kennedy said he plans to rebuild the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency with broad reach and a $1.3 trillion budget, if confirmed. He has suggested that the Food and Drug Administration is beholden to “big pharmaceutical companies,” and his anti-vaccine nonprofit has called on it to stop using COVID-19 vaccines.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, petitioned the FDA to halt the use of all COVID vaccines. The group has argued that the FDA is dependent on “big pharmaceutical companies” because it receives much of its budget from industry fees and some employees who have left the agency have gone 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 parted ways with the group when he announced his run for president, but is listed as one of the lawyers in the lawsuit.
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