WASHINGTON — Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a baby, says any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees searching for Senate affirmation ought to “steer clear” of efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in confirmed cures should not simply uninformed — they’re harmful,” McConnell stated in an announcement Friday. “Anybody searching for the Senate’s consent to serve within the incoming Administration would do properly to avoid even the looks of affiliation with such efforts.”
The 82-year-old lawmaker’s assertion seemed to be directed at Trump’s choose for well being secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one among his advisers filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022. That vaccine is broadly thought of to have halted the illness in most components of the world.
McConnell’s phrases had been an indication that Kennedy, who has lengthy superior the debunked concept that vaccines trigger autism, might face some resistance within the soon-to-be GOP-controlled Senate.
“Mr. Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine needs to be obtainable to the general public and totally and correctly studied,” stated Katie Miller, the transition spokeswoman for Kennedy, in response to questions.
The New York Occasions reported that the petition was filed by a lawyer now serving to Kennedy choose candidates for federal well being positions within the incoming administration.
Any particular person or firm can file a petition with the Meals and Drug Administration, which usually fields tons of of requests at any time relating to varied meals, drug and medical points. Most petitions are denied, however the FDA is required to reply to every one in writing.
Vaccines have been confirmed to be secure and efficient in laboratory testing and in real-world use in tons of of tens of millions of individuals over a long time — they’re thought of among the many best public well being measures in historical past.
McConnell contracted polio at 2 years previous however survived due to “the miraculous mixture of contemporary medication and a mom’s love,” in keeping with the assertion. He praised the “saving energy” of the polio vaccine for the “tens of millions who got here after me.”
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated in a publish on X that it was “outrageous and harmful for individuals within the Trump Transition to try to eliminate the polio vaccine that has just about eradicated polio in America and saved tens of millions of lives.
He stated Kennedy ought to make clear his personal place on it.
Trump introduced final month his choice of Kennedy, saying Kennedy would work to guard People “from dangerous chemical substances, pollution, pesticides, pharmaceutical merchandise, and meals components.”
However that choose was met with alarm from scientists and public well being officers, who worry Kennedy would unwind lifesaving public well being initiatives corresponding to vaccines.
Kennedy has pushed different conspiracy theories concerning vaccines, corresponding to that COVID-19 might have been “ethnically focused” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language individuals, feedback he later stated had been taken out of context. He has repeatedly introduced up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public well being mandates.
Kennedy stated he plans to remake the Division of Well being and Human Providers, an company with sprawling attain and a $1.3 trillion finances, if he’s authorised. He has recommended the FDA is beholden to “large pharma,” and his anti-vaccine nonprofit has known as on it to cease utilizing COVID-19 vaccines.
Throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, his nonprofit group, Youngsters’s Well being Protection, petitioned the FDA to halt using all COVID vaccines. The group has alleged that the FDA is beholden to “large pharma” as a result of it receives a lot of its finances from trade charges and a few workers who’ve departed the company have gone on to work for drugmakers.
Youngsters’s Well being Protection at present has a lawsuit pending towards various information organizations, amongst them The Related Press, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to establish misinformation, together with about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took depart from the group when he introduced his run for president however is listed as one among its attorneys within the lawsuit.
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