Outcry after RFK Jr linked to efforts to overturn US approval of polio vaccine | Donald Trump News

Backlash has grown in the United States following a report linking one of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet members to an effort to revoke approval of the polio vaccine.

On Saturday, the Associated Press news agency released a statement from a spokesperson for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

In the statement, Kennedy's camp attempted to distance the candidate from a New York Times report that his lawyer Aaron Siri had called for withholding approval of the life-saving vaccine.

Mr. Kennedy believes the polio vaccine should be available to the public and studied thoroughly and appropriately, said Katie Miller, a Kennedy spokeswoman.

But a New York Times article raised alarms about Kennedy's nomination for Health and Human Services, a department whose mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Americans.

Kennedy, like Siri, is a vocal vaccine skeptic. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy helped sow doubt about vaccines designed to protect against the deadly virus, calling them poorly tested and potentially deadly.

And in 2019, when a measles outbreak killed more than 80 children in Samoa, Kennedy wrote to the Samoan prime minister, suggesting that a faulty vaccine could be the cause. He also championed conspiracy theories linking vaccination to autism, a widely disproven belief.

Kennedy has long denied being anti-vaccine, arguing that he simply wants to ensure the safety of vaccines. But members of his own family have spoken out against his history of spreading misinformation about vaccines.

A Trump ally

In the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy ran on an independent ticket, before suspending his campaign in August and throwing his support behind Trump.

Subsequently, he became a prominent Trump surrogate, appearing several times on the campaign trail alongside the Republican leader.

Trump, in turn, announced early on that he would appoint Kennedy to his administration.

I'm going to let him rant about health care, Trump said during an October campaign stop at New York's Madison Square Garden. I'm going to let him run wild with the meds.

Trump's decision to choose Kennedy to lead Health and Human Services has raised concerns in the medical community about the future of efforts to limit the spread of preventable diseases.

Those concerns were amplified Friday with the New York Times report. The article resurfaces a 2022 petition Siri sent to the Food and Drug Administration to rescind approval of polio vaccines, as well as other vaccines.

Polio is a highly contagious disease, capable of causing paralysis and death. There is no cure for the infection, but vaccines can prevent its spread.

Siri has a close relationship with Kennedy. The two campaigned together during Kennedy's candidacy, and NBC News reported that Kennedy was considering appointing Siri as attorney general, had he succeeded in winning the White House.

Quick review

Reaction to Friday's report was swift, with bipartisan condemnation pouring in.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, issued a statement Friday warning that any effort to discredit the polio vaccine could threaten the nominees' Senate confirmation hearing.

He did not mention Kennedy by name, but McConnell, 82, is known to be a survivor of childhood polio, which left his left leg briefly paralyzed.

Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven remedies are not just misinformed, they are dangerous, McConnell wrote.

Anyone seeking Senate consent to serve in the new administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of association with such efforts.

Democrats also criticized Kennedy's association with Siri.

Say goodbye to your smile and hello to polio, Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a video posted to social media. This is a man who wants to prevent children from getting vaccinated against polio and measles.

Another senator, Chuck Schumer, called on Kennedy to make his position on the polio vaccine clear.

It is outrageous and dangerous for people in the Trump transition to try to get rid of the polio vaccine that has virtually eradicated polio in America and saved millions of lives, wrote Schumer, the Senate majority leader. RFK Jr. needs to state his position on this.

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and longtime Trump rival, posted her own rebuttal, along with a screenshot of a New York Times article.

I think Trump voters might be surprised to learn that they voted to make polio great again, she wrote, offering an interpretation of Trump's slogan, Make America Great Again.

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