Backlash has been constructing in the US following a information report that hyperlinks one in every of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed cupboard members to an effort to revoke approval for the polio vaccine.
On Saturday, The Related Press information company printed an announcement from a spokesperson for Robert F Kennedy Jr, whom Trump has nominated to guide the Well being and Human Companies Division.
Within the assertion, Kennedy’s camp tried to distance the nominee from a New York Occasions report that his lawyer Aaron Siri had petitioned to droop approval for the life-saving vaccine.
“Mr Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine needs to be out there to the general public and completely and correctly studied,” Katie Miller, Kennedy’s spokesperson, stated.
However The New York Occasions article has raised alarm about Kennedy’s nomination to Well being and Human Companies, a division whose mission is to boost the “well being and well-being of all Individuals”.
Kennedy, like Siri, is a vocal vaccine sceptic. In 2020, on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy helped unfold doubts about vaccines designed to guard in opposition to the lethal virus, calling them “shoddily examined” and probably “lethal”.
And in 2019, when a measles outbreak killed greater than 80 youngsters in Samoa, Kennedy wrote to the Samoan prime minister implying {that a} “faulty vaccine” might be responsible. He has additionally pushed conspiracy theories that hyperlink vaccination to autism, a broadly debunked perception.
Kennedy has lengthy denied being anti-vaccine, arguing as a substitute that he merely desires to make sure vaccine security. However members of his circle of relatives have spoken out in opposition to his monitor report of spreading vaccine misinformation.
A Trump ally
Within the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy ran on an impartial ticket, earlier than suspending his marketing campaign in August and throwing his help behind Trump.
Afterwards, he grew to become a outstanding Trump surrogate, showing quite a few instances on the marketing campaign path with the Republican chief.
Trump, in flip, teased early on that he would nominate Kennedy to his administration.
“I’m going to let him go wild on well being,” Trump stated at an October marketing campaign cease at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York. “I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”
Trump’s determination to select Kennedy to go Well being and Human Companies has raised concern within the medical neighborhood about the way forward for efforts to restrict the unfold of preventable sickness.
These considerations have been amplified on Friday, with The New York Occasions report. The article resurfaced a 2022 petition Siri made to the Meals and Drug Administration to rescind the polio vaccine’s approval, together with that of different vaccines.
Polio is a extremely infectious illness, able to inflicting paralysis and loss of life. There isn’t any treatment as soon as contaminated, however vaccines can stop its unfold.
Siri has loved a shut relationship with Kennedy. The 2 campaigned collectively throughout Kennedy’s bid for workplace, and NBC Information reported that Kennedy mulled appointing Siri as his lawyer common, had he succeeded in successful the White Home.
Swift criticism
The backlash to Friday’s report was swift, with bipartisan condemnation pouring in.
Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, a Republican, issued an announcement on Friday warning that any effort to discredit the polio vaccine may threaten the nominee’s Senate affirmation listening to.
He didn’t point out Kennedy by title, however McConnell, 82, is understood to be a survivor of childhood polio, which left his left leg briefly paralysed.
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in confirmed cures are usually not simply uninformed — they’re harmful,” McConnell wrote.
“Anybody in search of the Senate’s consent to serve within the incoming administration would do nicely to keep away from even the looks of affiliation with such efforts.”
Democrats likewise criticised Kennedy’s affiliation with Siri.
“Say goodbye to your smile and say howdy to polio,” Senator Elizabeth Warren stated in a video posted to social media. “It is a man who desires to cease youngsters from getting their polio and measles pictures.”
One other senator, Chuck Schumer, referred to as on Kennedy to make his place on the polio vaccine clear.
“It’s outrageous and harmful for folks within the Trump Transition to attempt to do away with the polio vaccine that has nearly eradicated polio in America and saved hundreds of thousands of lives,” Schumer, the Senate majority chief, wrote. “RFK Jr. should state his place on this.”
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee for the presidency and a longtime rival of Trump’s, posted her personal rejoinder, with a screenshot of The New York Occasions article.
“I believe Trump voters could also be stunned to be taught they voted to make polio nice once more,” she wrote, providing a riff on Trump’s slogan, “Make America Nice Once more”.
