Backlash has been building in the United States following a news report that links one of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed cabinet members to an effort to revoke approval for the polio vaccine.
On Saturday, The Associated Press news agency published a statement from a spokesperson for Robert F Kennedy Jr, whom Trump has nominated to lead the Health and Human Services Department.
In the statement, Kennedy’s camp attempted to distance the nominee from a New York Times report that his lawyer Aaron Siri had petitioned to suspend approval for the life-saving vaccine.
“Mr Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied,” Katie Miller, Kennedy’s spokesperson, said.
But The New York Times article has raised alarm about Kennedy’s nomination to Health and Human Services, a department whose mission is to enhance the “health and well-being of all Americans”.
Kennedy, like Siri, is a vocal vaccine sceptic. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy helped spread doubts about vaccines designed to protect against the deadly virus, calling them “shoddily tested” and potentially “deadly”.
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And in 2019, when a measles outbreak killed more than 80 children in Samoa, Kennedy wrote to the Samoan prime minister implying that a “defective vaccine” could be to blame. He has also pushed conspiracy theories that link vaccination to autism, a widely debunked belief.
Kennedy has long denied being anti-vaccine, arguing instead that he simply wants to ensure vaccine safety. But members of his own family have spoken out against his track record of spreading vaccine misinformation.
A Trump ally
In the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy ran on an independent ticket, before suspending his campaign in August and throwing his support behind Trump.
Afterwards, he became a prominent Trump surrogate, appearing numerous times on the campaign trail with the Republican leader.
Trump, in turn, teased early on that he would nominate Kennedy to his administration.
“I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said at an October campaign stop at Madison Square Garden in New York. “I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”
Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy to head Health and Human Services has raised concern in the medical community about the future of efforts to limit the spread of preventable illness.
Those concerns were amplified on Friday, with The New York Times report. The article resurfaced a 2022 petition Siri made to the Food and Drug Administration to rescind the polio vaccine’s approval, along with that of other vaccines.
Polio is a highly infectious disease, capable of causing paralysis and death. There is no cure once infected, but vaccines can prevent its spread.
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Siri has enjoyed a close relationship with Kennedy. The two campaigned together during Kennedy’s bid for office, and NBC News reported that Kennedy mulled appointing Siri as his attorney general, had he succeeded in winning the White House.
Swift criticism
The backlash to Friday’s report was swift, with bipartisan condemnation pouring in.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, issued a statement on Friday warning that any effort to discredit the polio vaccine could threaten the nominee’s Senate confirmation hearing.
He did not mention Kennedy by name, but McConnell, 82, is known to be a survivor of childhood polio, which left his left leg briefly paralysed.
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell wrote.
“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.”
Democrats likewise criticised Kennedy’s association with Siri.
“Say goodbye to your smile and say hello to polio,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a video posted to social media. “This is a man who wants to stop kids from getting their polio and measles shots.”
Another senator, Chuck Schumer, called on Kennedy to make his position on the polio vaccine clear.
“It’s 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,” Schumer, the Senate majority leader, wrote. “RFK Jr. must state his position on this.”
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Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee for the presidency and a longtime rival of Trump’s, posted her own rejoinder, with a screenshot of The New York Times article.
“I think Trump voters may be surprised to learn they voted to make polio great again,” she wrote, offering a riff on Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again”.
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