By Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Friday blasted “specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress” after The New York Times reported that a lawyer linked to Robert F. Kennedy has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine.
McConnell, a polio survivor, warned that “efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous.”
“Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts,” McConnell said in a statement, clearly referring to Kennedy, President-elect Trump’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
The New York Times reported Friday that a lawyer helping Kennedy hire federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the federal government to revoke approval for the polio vaccine.
The Times reported that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, has waged a battle against a variety of vaccines, having filed a petition seeking to stop the distribution of 13 other vaccines.
Siri, who represented Kennedy during his presidential campaign, filed the polio-related petition in 2022 on behalf of the Informed Consent Network.
The issue of banning polio vaccines strikes close to home for McConnell, who battled polio as a young boy.
One of McConnell’s earliest memories is of receiving treatment at Warm Springs, Georgia, the same place President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited throughout his life to find relief from the crippling disease.
McConnell said he was spared the physical ravages suffered by Roosevelt and thousands of other Americans in the first half of the 20th century because of “modern medicine and a mother’s love.”
“From the age of two, normal life without paralysis was only possible for me because of the miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love. But for millions who came after me, the real miracle was the saving power of the polio vaccine,” he said.
“For decades, I have been proud to work with devoted advocates – from Rotary International to the Gates Foundation – and use my platform in public life to champion the pursuit of cures for further generations. I have never flinched from confronting specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress, and I will not today,” he declared.
McConnell’s statement may portend a bruising battle over Kennedy’s nomination.
Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, founded the non-profit group, Children’s Health Defense, which describes itself as dedicated to ending childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure.
It has been described by media organizations as an anti-vaccine advocacy group that has filed close to 30 federal and state lawsuits against vaccine and other public health mandates over the past four years.
If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy, however, told NPR in a November interview that “we’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody.”
But he also claimed that “right now the science on vaccine safety particularly has huge deficits in it.”
“We’re going to make sure those scientific studies are done and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children’s vaccinations,” he pledged.