By MORIAH BALINGIT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a baby, says any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees searching for Senate affirmation ought to “steer clear” of efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell stated in an announcement Friday. “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.”
The 82-year-old lawmaker’s assertion gave the impression to be directed at Trump’s choose for well being secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one among 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 elements of the world.
McConnell’s phrases had been an indication that Kennedy, who has lengthy superior the debunked concept that vaccines trigger autism, might face some resistance within the soon-to-be GOP-controlled Senate.
“Mr. Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied,” stated Katie Miller, the transition spokeswoman for Kennedy, in response to questions.
The New York Occasions 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 numerous meals, drug and medical points. Most petitions are denied, however the FDA is required to reply to every one in writing.
Vaccines have been confirmed to be protected and efficient in laboratory testing and in real-world use in lots of of thousands and thousands of individuals over a long time — they’re thought of among the many simplest public well being measures in historical past.
McConnell contracted polio at 2 years previous however survived due to “the miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love,” in line with the assertion. He praised the “saving power” of the polio vaccine for the “millions who came after me.”
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated in a put up on X that it was “outrageous and dangerous for people in the Trump Transition to try and get rid of the polio vaccine that has virtually eradicated polio in America and saved millions of lives.
He said Kennedy should clarify his own position on it.
Trump announced last month his selection of Kennedy, saying Kennedy would work to protect Americans “from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives.”
However that choose was met with alarm from scientists and public well being officers, who worry Kennedy would unwind lifesaving public well being initiatives similar to vaccines.
Kennedy has pushed different conspiracy theories concerning vaccines, similar to that COVID-19 might have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language folks, feedback he later stated had been taken out of context. He has repeatedly introduced up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public well being mandates.
Kennedy stated he plans to remake the Division of Well being and Human Providers, an company with sprawling attain and a $1.3 trillion price range, if he’s accredited. He has urged the FDA is beholden to “big pharma,” and his anti-vaccine nonprofit has known 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 “big pharma” as a result of it receives a lot of its price range from trade charges and a few workers who’ve departed the company have gone on to work for drugmakers.
Youngsters’s Well being Protection at the moment has a lawsuit pending in opposition to plenty of information organizations, amongst them The Related Press, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to establish misinformation, together with about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took go away from the group when he introduced his run for president however is listed as one among its attorneys within the lawsuit.
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