Trump’s nominees should ‘stay away’ from undermining polio vaccine, McConnell says

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, wears a bandage on his face and wrist as he walks to vote on the Senate floor after collapsing during a luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 10 2024 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) (Mark Schiefelbein)

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees seeking confirmation should “escape” efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.

“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven remedies are not only uninformed, they are dangerous,” McConnell said in a statement Friday. “Anyone seeking Senate confirmation to serve in the new administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of association with such efforts.”

The 82-year-old lawmaker’s statement appeared to be directed at Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one of his aides had filed a petition to withdraw approval of the polio vaccine in 2022. It was a sign that Kennedy, who has long advanced the disproven idea that vaccines cause autism, could face resistance in the future. GOP controlled Senate.

“Mr. Kennedy believes that the polio vaccine should be available to the public and should be thoroughly and properly studied,” Katie Miller, Kennedy’s transition spokeswoman, said in response to questions.

The New York Times reported Friday that a lawyer helping Kennedy pick candidates for health officials has filed a petition to have the government revoke its approval of the polio vaccine — widely believed to have stopped the disease in most parts of the world – and stop distribution of other vaccines. The Washington Post also confirmed the petition. The AP has not independently confirmed the petition, which was filed in 2022, according to the Times.

Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory tests and in real-world use on hundreds of millions of people over decades—they are considered among the most effective public health measures in history.

McConnell contracted polio at age 2, but survived, he said Friday, because of the “miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love.” He praised the “saving power” of the polio vaccine for the “millions who came after me.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer responded to the Times report on Friday. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he called it “outrageous and dangerous for people in the Trump transition to try to get rid of the polio vaccine that virtually eradicated polio in America and saved millions of lives.”

He asked Kennedy to clarify his own position on this.

Trump nominated Kennedy last month, saying he would work to protect Americans “from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food additives.”

But his nomination was immediately met with alarm from scientists and public health officials, who fear Kennedy will roll back life-saving public health initiatives like vaccines.

Kennedy promoted other vaccine conspiracy theories, such as that COVID-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, comments he later said were pulled from context. He repeatedly discussed the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public health mandates.

Kennedy has said he plans to restore the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency with broad reach and a $1.3 trillion budget, if approved. He suggested the Food and Drug Administration was beholden to “big pharma,” and his anti-vaccine organization called on it to stop using COVID-19 vaccines.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, his nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, petitioned the FDA to halt the use of all COVID vaccines. The group argued that the FDA is beholden to “big pharma” because it receives much of its budget from industry taxes and some employees who have left the agency have gone on to work for drugmakers.

Children’s Health Defense currently has a lawsuit against a number of news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID vaccines -19. Kennedy took a leave of absence from the group when he announced his candidacy for president, but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.