A key lawyer, connected to Robert F Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, has filed a petition to suspend or withdraw approval of a polio vaccine for children. Attorney Aaron Siri has filed the petition on behalf of Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), an activist group that questions vaccine safety, asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put on hold the polio vaccine manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur. Mr Siri has argued that the vaccine should not be administered until another trial is conducted.
“The clinical trials relied upon to license this product did not include a control group and only assessed safety for up to three days after injection. These trials therefore did not comply with the applicable federal statutory and regulatory requirements necessary to prove the product was “safe” prior to licensure,” read the petition filed in 2022, accessed by NYT.
Apart from the polio vaccine, Mr Siri has also filed petitions to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines. He has challenged and in some cases, quashed COVID-19 mandates across the country in addition to suing federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals.
Mr Siri is an adviser to RFK Jr., helping him select health officials for the Trump administration, according to media reports. He recently posted a picture with RFK on his X (previously Twitter) feed and quote-posted the announcement by President-elect Trump when he picked the secretary of Health and Human Services. “A new day is about to dawn for transparency, accountability and truth!” he wrote at the time.
A new day is about to dawn for transparency, accountability and truth! https://t.co/kUxTbQFRuF
— Aaron Siri (@AaronSiriSG) November 14, 2024
If RFK Jr. is confirmed as head of HHS, he will oversee the FDA and might take the rare step of intervening in the petition review process.
Quizzed about the petition, the FDA in a response to CNN wrote: “The FDA is continuing to review the petition. We cannot predict when the reviews will be completed. The FDA will consider the concerns outlined in the petition as a final decision is made.”
“The FDA will respond directly to the petitioner, and that response will be posted on the docket. Until such time, we cannot comment further.”
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Donald Trump on vaccines
While Trump has been a vaccine sceptic, he praised the polio vaccine and related vaccination programme in a recent interview.
“The polio vaccine is the greatest thing. If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they’re going to have to work real hard to convince me,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview.
During the canvassing trail, Mr Trump hinted that the rise in autism cases may have been connected to the child vaccines.
“We’re going to have a big discussion. 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,” he said.
