Would the Polio Vaccine Be At Risk Under Robert Kennedy, Jr.?
On December 13, 2024, the New York Times published an article by Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg that raised the question whether a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Robert Kennedy, Jr., the prospective Trump nominee, might place polio vaccines at risk. The article was entitled “Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html . Some background is in order. Kennedy, a son of the late Robert Kennedy, has been a longtime challenger regarding several vaccines including for childhood diseases, hepatitis B and others. The person in question in the Times article, Aaron Siri, has served as Kennedy’s lawyer and has been reported as joining Kennedy in “questioning and choosing candidates for top health positions in the new administration…” Some of the questions are reported as involving attitudes toward vaccines. According to the article “Mr. Kennedy has privately expressed interest in having Mr. Siri serve in the Health and Human Services Department’s top legal job, general counsel. However, Mr. Siri has suggested he may have more influence outside the administration…’Somebody on the outside needs to be petitioning them,’ he said on a podcast.” Id. Siri has a law firm, Siri
& Glimstad that works including other things in challenging vaccines.
One subject that came up and that was the subject of the Times article is that, two years ago, in 2022 Siri filed a petition to suspend or withdraw approval of Sanofi’s polio vaccine for children. The petition was filed on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, an influential and well-funded anti-vaccine group, and a non-profit to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. See “RFK Jr. ally filed petition to revoke FDA approval for polio vaccine,” Rachel Roubein and Lauren Weber, Washington Post, December 13, 2024. Requesting suspension of the polio vaccine is the kind of action that can send shock waves through those working in public health and others concerned for more personal health reasons. Mitch McConnell, for instance and for one, the current minority leader of the U.S. House
of Representatives, experienced polio earlier in life and is still affected by it today. Two of my own uncles also suffered from polio at younger ages and carried the effects into later life.
McConnell, addressing the issue recently described his experience as “Like millions of families before them, my parents knew the 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…”
To clarify he described “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. I have never flinched from confronting specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress…”
The argument made by some considered antivaxers against some vaccines including potentially the polio and hepatitis B vaccines is that they should be tested against placebos in double-blind clinical trials. This would mean, for instance, that children would receive what is alleged to be the vaccine where some would and some would not. Later a comparison would be made regarding how many developed a condition and how many did not. This type of terrifying game of chance could risk recurrence of a disease that many Americans have believed was eradicated or close to it. The polio vaccine, first the injectable in 1955 developed by Dr. Jonas Salk and later the oral developed in 1961 by Dr. Albert Sabin have been around for quite some time and tested.
Worldwide, Bill Gates and the Rotary Foundation in its Polio Plus campaign have worked to eradicate the disease entirely.
In response to critics, Kennedy and Siri state that they do not intend to take away vaccines from those who want them. However, as the Times article pointed out some of the petitions filed on behalf of ICAN with the FDA have requested regulators to withdraw or suspend approval or “pause distribution” which would have the effect of removing that choice and contagion is a continuing problem.
About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.