Mitch McConnell Decries ‘Dangerous’ Push Against Polio Vaccine After RFK Jr. Report | EUROtoday

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a stark warning to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and different skeptics of vaccines on Friday after a brand new report detailed the Donald Trump nominee’s ties to a lawyer who sought to revoke approval of the lifesaving polio vaccine for kids.

“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease,” McConnell, who had polio as a baby, mentioned in an announcement. “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 added, in a not-so-veiled reference to Kenndy being tapped by Trump to guide the U.S. Health and Human Services Department subsequent 12 months.

The New York Times revealed on Friday that Aaron Siri, a lawyer Kennedy has been consulting on whom to pick as high well being officers for the following Trump administration, has filed a number of authorized petitions to dam vaccines in recent times. That features a 2022 petition for the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of a normal polio vaccine for infants and youngsters, claiming the company must do additional research to show its security.

If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee the FDA and a number of different federal public well being companies. The environmental lawyer and son of former U.S. Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is a distinguished vaccine skeptic who has unfold wild conspiracy theories through the years. Trump’s alternative of Kennedy to guide the highest well being company has alarmed public well being specialists and 77 Nobel laureates who urged the Senate to reject his anticipated nomination final week.

Some Republican senators have expressed issues about Kennedy’s views, however none have publicly declared their opposition to his path to affirmation.

“I believe vaccines are appropriate. They have to be safe. I want to know what his real concerns are and what he would want to do different, but I do not want to lose our vaccine programs,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) advised reporters on Thursday.

McConnell, in the meantime, mirrored on his boyhood expertise of scuffling with polio and his dad and mom’ “pain and fear of watching their child struggle with the life-altering diagnosis of polio.”

“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 mentioned Friday.

“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,” the senator added. “I have never flinched from confronting specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress, and I will not today.”