Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a baby, says any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees in search of 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 mentioned in an announcement Friday. “Anybody in search of the Senate’s consent to serve within the incoming Administration would do effectively to avoid even the looks of affiliation with such efforts.”
The 82-year-old lawmaker’s assertion gave the impression to be directed at Trump’s decide for well being secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one in every of his advisers filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022. That vaccine is extensively 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, may face some resistance within the soon-to-be GOP-controlled Senate.
“Mr. Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine must be obtainable to the general public and totally and correctly studied,” mentioned Katie Miller, the transition spokeswoman for Kennedy, in response to questions.
The New York Instances 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 lots of of requests at any time relating to varied meals, drug and medical points. Most petitions are denied, however the FDA is required to answer every one in writing.
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Vaccines have been confirmed to be protected and efficient in laboratory testing and in real-world use in lots of of tens of millions of individuals over a long time — they’re thought of among the many only public well being measures in historical past.
McConnell contracted polio at 2 years previous however survived due to “the miraculous mixture of contemporary drugs and a mom’s love,” in accordance 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., mentioned in a publish on X that it was “outrageous and harmful for individuals within the Trump Transition to attempt to do away with the polio vaccine that has nearly eradicated polio in America and saved tens of millions of lives.
He mentioned Kennedy ought to make clear his personal place on it.
Trump introduced final month his number of Kennedy, saying Kennedy would work to guard Individuals “from dangerous chemical compounds, pollution, pesticides, pharmaceutical merchandise, and meals components.”
However that decide was met with alarm from scientists and public well being officers, who worry Kennedy would unwind lifesaving public well being initiatives comparable to vaccines.
Kennedy has pushed different conspiracy theories concerning vaccines, comparable to that COVID-19 may have been “ethnically focused” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language individuals, feedback he later mentioned had been taken out of context. He has repeatedly introduced up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public well being mandates.
Kennedy mentioned he plans to remake the Division of Well being and Human Companies, an company with sprawling attain and a $1.3 trillion finances, if he’s permitted. He has steered the FDA is beholden to “large pharma,” and his anti-vaccine nonprofit has referred to as on it to cease utilizing COVID-19 vaccines.
In the course of 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 business charges and a few staff who’ve departed the company have gone on to work for drugmakers.
Youngsters’s Well being Protection at present has a lawsuit pending towards quite a lot of information organizations, amongst them The Related Press, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to determine 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 in every of its attorneys within the lawsuit.
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