Aaron Siri, a conspiracy theorist associated with Kennedy, has also filed a petition to halt the distribution of 13 additional vaccines.
"Aaron Siri, the lawyer for
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s likely nominee for
Secretary of Health and Human Services, filed a petition with the federal
government on Friday to revoke approval of the polio vaccine."
"Siri, a well-known conspiracy
theorist like Kennedy, has previously filed a petition to halt the distribution
of 13 other vaccines, including those for hepatitis B and COVID-19. His most
recent filing was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Like
Kennedy, Siri is a vocal critic of vaccines. Through the Informed Consent
Action Network, a nonprofit both men are affiliated with, they have repeatedly
made the unfounded claim that vaccines are harmful or cause autism."
"I love Aaron Siri,"
Kennedy said in a clip featured on a recent episode of a podcast hosted by Del
Bigtree, founder of the Informed Consent Action Network. "There’s no one
who has been a greater asset to the medical freedom movement than him."
The campaign against polio vaccines
has already had a human cost. In 2022, a team of federal scientists from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated a series of polio
cases in Rockland County, NY, where an outbreak affected a large Hasidic Jewish
community, known for its high prevalence of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
Dr. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in 1955 to widespread acclaim, vowing to make it available for free. In an interview with Salon last year, Dr. Peter Salk shared that his father would be "really puzzled" by the rise and spread of anti-vaccine ideology. "His entire commitment was to protect the population from infectious diseases," Salk explained.
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