Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell issued a stark warning on Friday Robert F. KennedyPresident-elect Donald Trump Choose leadership After The New York Times reported that a senior adviser to Kennedy had filed a petition to revoke an approval, the Department of Health and Human Services polio vaccine and several other photos.
“Anyone seeking Senate consent to serve in the incoming administration would be wise to avoid any even superficial association with such activity,” McConnell said in a statement.
mcconnell, a Polio Survivors decried efforts to “undermine public confidence in proven treatments such as the polio vaccine.”
“The polio vaccine saved millions of lives and delivered on the promise of eradicating this terrible disease,” McConnell said. “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven treatments are not only ignorant; they are Dangerous.
McConnell praised “the miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother's love” for saving him from paralysis when he contracted the disease at age two, and praised the “saving power of the polio vaccine” for millions of people. Miracle” follows his children.
The New York Times article focused on the work of Aaron Siri, an attorney with the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), which petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022 to “ask the FDA to suspend or revoke its investigation into Sanofi German approval of inactivated polio vaccine, known as IPOL.
Siri has been serving as an adviser to the Kennedy transition team and, if confirmed by the Senate, will Oversee the FDA and other public health agencies in the state.
Siri called the New York Times article a “hit piece” that did not address the substance of the “legitimate” concerns at the heart of his petition to ICAN.
“ICAN's petition filed in 2022 raises reasonable demands that the FDA require appropriate clinical trials of IPOL prior to licensure, as required by federal law,” Siri said. release on X.
Times report on Siri's work sparks new backlash against Kennedy Democratic PartyFor months, they have criticized Trump's relationship with Kennedy.
As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy important direct power As the U.S. Secretary of Health, he is responsible for how vaccines are researched, approved and recommended in the United States.
Kennedy himself said he would not ban vaccine He sought to distance himself from the “anti-vaccination” label and instead called for further research into the vaccines. He recently resigned as president of Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit group that regulators found for years spreading misinformation about vaccine fears.
President-elect Donald Trump said he might be willing to give up some vaccines “if I thought it was dangerous” and pledged to listen to Kennedy.
“We're going to have a big discussion,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published this week. “Autism rates have reached levels that no one would believe. If you look at what's going on, you'll see There are a few reasons for this.
Extensive medical research has clearly shown that vaccines do not cause autism.
Siri's petition against ICAN hasn't made much progress since it was submitted to the FDA in 2022.
In a 2023 letter responding to the polio petition, the agency's top vaccine official said: Dr. Peter Markswrote that the FDA “is unable to make a decision on your petition because it raises issues that require further review and analysis by agency officials.”
Siri's petition targets IPOL, the only “single-antigen” polio vaccine currently recommended for use in the United States, which was approved in the 1990s.
Many children who receive polio immunization typically do not receive IPOL but instead receive one of several combination vaccines that mix harmless polio virus with other recommended antigens for various vaccine-preventable diseases.
The CDC says IPOL is “primarily intended as a travel vaccine for adults.” The agency said “the body of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports” the safety of the polio vaccine.
Siri hinted that there are plans to submit more petitions to the FDA now that Kennedy takes charge of HHS.
“It helps if there's an outsider coming in from the outside. For example, the FDA takes action based on a petition. If you want to get a product approved, you have to petition them. If you want the product to be withdrawn or re-evaluated, You would then have to file a petition with them.
“Someone outside needs to petition them,” Seely added.
Nikole Killion contributed to this report.
