Polio survivor Mitch McConnell denounces lawyer’s ‘dangerous’ effort to derail vaccine, know the whole matter

Outgoing Republican Senate leader and polio survivor Mitch McConnell on Friday denounced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lawyer’s “dangerous” efforts to derail the polio vaccine.

Attorney Aaron Siri filed a petition to have the Food and Drug Administration revoke its approval for several crucial childhood vaccines, including the polio vaccine, in 2022. News of Siri’s action resurfaced just weeks after President-elect Donald Trump nominated RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Siri is currently helping Kennedy vet medical officials to serve at the department.

Kennedy is known for his extreme anti-vaccination stance, which is widely ridiculed by the mainstream medical community. Siri’s petition claimed the vaccine was not properly tested to ensure it was safe, even though its decade of use has protected millions of children from the disease.

“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and holds the promise of eradicating a terrible disease,” McConnell said in a statement following Siri’s action. “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven treatments are not only ignorant — they are dangerous.” McConnell contracted polio as a child and struggled with paralysis caused by the often fatal disease. He still struggles with stiffness in his legs today.

“Like millions of families before them, my parents knew the pain and fear of watching their child struggle with a life-altering diagnosis of polio,” McConnell said in a statement. “From the age of two, a normal life without paralysis was possible for me only because of the miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love. But for the millions who came after me, the real miracle was the saving power of the polio vaccine.

Neither Siri nor RFK Jr. immediately responded to McConnell’s attack.