Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lawyer blasts ‘hysterical’ media reports that distort view of vaccine selected by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
A lawyer for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted a New York Times report last week that Trump’s HHS secretary nominee sought to undo the U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA approval of polio vaccine.
“Contrary to hysterical media reports that the petition sought to make sure no polio vaccines would be available, the scope of the petition was quite narrow,” Aaron Siri, a close RFK Jr. adviser and partner at Siri & Glimstad LLP, told Fox News Digital. “It simply asks the FDA to require appropriate trials of the new polio vaccine before it can be approved for use in children.”
The New York Times reported Friday that Siri is “waging a war” against all vaccines, but Siri said the report “falsely claims the petition seeks to eliminate” the polio vaccine, “as if there is only one vaccine , and our client sought to leave Americans with no choice in getting the polio vaccine.
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“Essentially, the petition is about ensuring the safety of one of the six currently licensed polio vaccines, which we give to children three times before their first birthday,” he said.
Days before the report is released, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. traveled to Capitol Hill this week to meet with senators to seek confirmed support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The petition, filed in 2022 on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), rather than Siri’s personal action, urges the FDA to suspend the polio vaccine IPOL for infants and children. ICAN’s request stemmed from concerns about IPOL, which was licensed by Sanofi in 1990 and whose approval was based on pediatric trials that, according to the FDA, only assessed safety within three days of injection.
Siri added that this is not the traditional polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk or Albert Sabin that many are familiar with. Instead, it is a product that utilizes a different technology, in which the poliovirus is grown on monkey kidney cells that have been genetically modified to replicate indefinitely, similar to cancer cells. Traces of these cells were present in every vaccine dose.
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Nurse Lydia Fulton prepares to administer the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the vaccine used to help prevent diphtheria and whooping cough at the Children’s Primary Care Clinic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday, April 28. , tetanus and polio vaccines, 2017. (Courtney Perry/The Washington Post)
Another petition filed on behalf of ICAN in 2021 concerns 13 childhood vaccines containing aluminum adjuvants. The petition states that a peer-reviewed study found differences in the amount of aluminum in these vaccines from the amounts listed on their FDA-approved labels. The petition calls on the FDA to verify and publicly release documentation proving the accuracy of the aluminum content, or to halt distribution until it is resolved — an issue that critics say should not be controversial for a product injected into babies.
“Currently, political labels (pro-vaccine, anti-vaccine) do not adequately cover the realities of medical ethics, regulatory capture, and the impact of corporate money on health policy,” Siri said. “We must be able to make effective claims about vaccine safety, effectiveness, and policy. issues without worrying that any deviation from the ‘safe and effective’ mantra will be met with nicknames and ire.”
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Since media coverage of Siri’s petition, both Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have expressed support for a polio vaccine, without specifying which one. RFK Jr. expressed his skepticism of some vaccines in interviews during the 2024 presidential campaign while supporting the use of others as part of his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) slogan.
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“Mr. Kennedy believes the polio vaccine should be made available to the public and thoroughly and appropriately studied,” Kennedy transition spokesperson Katie Miller responded.
Trump, meanwhile, said during a Monday morning press conference at Mar-a-Lago that “everything deserves attention,” adding that he was a “strong supporter of the polio vaccine.”
Fox News Digital reached out to The New York Times for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
