A December 9 article in MedWatch is titled How Measles, Whooping Cough, and Worse Could Roar Back on RFK Jr.’s Watch. The subtitle: Some experts fear he could “make America sick again.” Arthur Allen, KFF Health News, wrote it
“Ater backlash against public health interventions culminated in President-elect Donald Trump’s nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the country’s best-known anti-vaccine activist, as its top health official, infectious disease and public health experts and vaccine advocates say a confluence of factors could cause renewed, deadly epidemics of measles, whooping cough, and meningitis, or even polio…
“Even states that keep existing requirements will be vulnerable to decisions made by a Republican-controlled Congress as well as by Kennedy and former Republican Rep. Dave Weldon, MD, of Florida, should they be confirmed to lead HHS and the CDC, respectively.
“Both men — Kennedy as an activist, Weldon as a medical doctor and congressman from 1995 to 2009 — have endorsed debunked theories blaming vaccines for autism and other chronic diseases… Both have accused the CDC of covering up evidence… despite dozens of reputable scientific studies to the contrary.”
Meanwhile, Vanity Fair’s December 13 article notes that RFK Jr.’s lawyer, who is helping staff HHS, has demanded the FDA’s revoke of the polio vaccine approval. The headline undersells the gravity of the issue.
Let’s bring back polio!
“That lawyer is Aaron Siri, whose polio petition was filed in 2022 and who does not discriminate when it comes to vaccines he’d like to take an axe to. According to the Times, Siri ‘has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines…; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions.’… While Kennedy has claimed, not very convincingly, that he does not intend to take away access to vaccines, his persistent undermining of them and his relationship with Siri does not inspire much confidence.” Vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, and diphtheria could be on the chopping block.
My friend Mary, who has a deep background in health issues, notes: “The basis for [Siri’s] request to revoke approval was the fact that when the polio vaccine was first being tested (about 70 years ago), they didn’t run randomized, double-blind studies against a placebo. The reason they didn’t was that, given the known risks of polio-causing paralysis that can seize major organs and kill people, such work is considered unethical.