Prominent Republican breaks ranks with Trump to issue stern rebuke to RFK Jr. over polio vaccine plan

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly condemned Donald Trump cabinet pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for reported plans to revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the polio vaccine. 

The 82-year-old polio survivor used personal experience to tear into Trump’s preferred health secretary, after The New York Times reported Kennedy’s lawyer had already petitioned fed to pull the vaccine from the market.

‘Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed – they’re dangerous,’ McConnell said of the bid from attorney Aaron Siri, while not singling out Kennedy by name.

‘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.’ he added, with plans to step down as his party’s Senate leader next month.

‘The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease,’ he added at another point, in a statement sent around Friday. 

It emerged hours after the Time report claimed one of his advisors filed a petition to revoke approval for the vaccine back in 2022, after it for decades protected millions from a virus that can cause paralysis or even death.

As a toddler in 1944, McConnell’s upper left leg was paralyzed by the disease. However, treatment available at the time likely saved him from being disabled for the rest of his life.

About a decade later, the first successful vaccine was developed by US physician Jonas Salk. The disease is now commonly considered an afterthought, but has been brought back up as Kennedy continues to wage war on vaccines.

‘Mr. Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied,’ a Kennedy spokesperson said in response to McConnell’s words Sunday, as they seemed to promise pushback from the GOP dominated Senate.

Kennedy, meanwhile, has continued to claim such vaccines can contribute to higher rates of autism – an assertion that’s been disproven by modern science.

McConnell appeared all too aware of this with his statement, which was sent out three days after the aging Senate Minority Leader fell and broke his wrist during a senate lunch. 

It served as the latest in a string of health issues for the outgoing Senate leader – including multiple falls, several health scares, and a flurry of bizarre ,’freezing episodes’ that further sparked concerns. 

As a result, he has faced calls to resign. The latest incident left him relegated to a wheelchair – a fate he avoided thanks to treatments to combat the debilitating disease while still young.

‘Leader McConnell tripped following lunch,’ his spokesperson told DailyMail.com following the incident Tuesday. 

‘He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule.’

Medical staff were called in to assist, and in addition to the broken wrist, the senator suffered cut on his face.

The president at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was a living reminder of how Polio could ravage the body if not treated, which the Salk vaccine made a thing of the past. 

He died a year after McConnel managed to beat the disease in 1944, after experiencing declining physical health due to the lack of treatments during his childhood.

Siri’s work – including the polio petition reportedly filed in 2022 – appears to center around this point, electing to op for treatments once the disease surfaces rather than nipping it in the bud. 

The petition further criticizes the clinical trials done to license the polio vaccine, and argues it should not be administered until another trial is conducted. Siri represented Kennedy during his failed presidential bid. 

As of writing, Siri works as an advisor to JFK’s 70-year-old nephew, whom, as it stands, is set to assume a role in Trump’s looming administration as the US’s new Secretary of Health and Human Services

In his current role, Siri has helped select other health officials for the Trump administration, according to media reports. Siri posted a picture with Kennedy on his X feed days after he was appointed, last month.

‘A new day is about to dawn for transparency, accountability and truth! the a litigation attorney who once clerked for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel wrote at the time. 

On his law firm’s website, the lawyer lists litigation over ‘vaccine injury’ as one of his specialties – as Kennedy’s spokesperson seemingly sought to distance her boss from his associate’s 2022 filing. 

If appointed, Kennedy’s department in the federal government will be tasked with preserving and improving the ‘health and well-being of all Americans’.  

He is a vaccine skeptic – leading Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to insist to CNBC last month: ‘[If he] follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will, and I believe he can, it will cost lives in this country.’

Asked about Kennedy’s vaccine views in an interview with Time magazine this week, Trump aired some skepticism of vaccines himself, while pointing to statistics that have not been substantiated.

‘We’re going to have a big discussion,’ he told the magazine after being named its person of the year.

Responding to inquiries  about whether he would support Kennedy if he seeks to end child vaccinations, Trump said ‘The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it.’

Asked whether he believes there is a connection between vaccines and autism, the president elect declined to fully double-down. 

‘I want to see the numbers,’ he said. ‘It’s going to be the numbers.’ The CDC, as of writing, has found no evidence of correlation between an increase in autism cases and vaccines given to children.