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Dennis Donovan

(27,990 posts)
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 06:31 PM Dec 13

NYT: McConnell Defends Polio Vaccine, an Apparent Warning to Kennedy

NYT - (archived: https://archive.ph/19Mvp ) McConnell Defends Polio Vaccine, an Apparent Warning to Kennedy

“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” said the former Republican leader, who is a polio survivor.



By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Dec. 13, 2024
Updated 6:12 p.m. ET
Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader and a survivor of polio, issued a pointed statement in support of the polio vaccine on Friday, hours after The New York Times reported that the lawyer for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has petitioned federal regulators to withdraw the vaccine from the market.

Without naming Mr. Kennedy, Mr. McConnell suggested that the petition could jeopardize his confirmation to be health secretary in the incoming Trump administration.

“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” he said. “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”

Mr. Kennedy has said he does not want to take away anyone’s vaccines. His lawyer, Aaron Siri, filed the petition in 2022 on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit run by Mr. Kennedy’s former communications director. Mr. Siri is advising Mr. Kennedy as he vets candidates for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. McConnell, 82, contracted polio as a child, more than a decade before the vaccine became widely available. When his left leg was paralyzed, his mother took him for treatment in Warm Springs, Ga., at the same treatment center frequented by another famous polio survivor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

/snip
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Hekate

(95,568 posts)
3. Her major injuries were from a bomb on a bus in her native Mexico. The shrapnel entered her seated body from below.
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 06:38 PM
Dec 13

Meowmee

(6,467 posts)
5. Yes I know all about that, terrible what she went through
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 06:49 PM
Dec 13

She was actually impaled by a metal bar, and it was a miracle she survived. But it had a terrible effect on her health with many surgeries and such and eventually it led to an early death. She also still did have some effects in one of her legs from polio.

Hekate

(95,568 posts)
2. It's TOO LATE, Mitch. You had your chance twice over to rid us of this evil, & you chose 30 pieces of silver...
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 06:36 PM
Dec 13

…over America and Americans.

My wish for him is a lingering space of time where he gets to watch what he personally had a major hand in making come to pass.

albacore

(2,646 posts)
7. That we would even be discussing modern vaccines in this country is an embarrassing statement about our intelligence.
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 07:06 PM
Dec 13

nt

groundloop

(12,424 posts)
11. Exactly. Anymore I almost hate to admit I'm American while travelling abroad.
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 09:15 PM
Dec 13

I'm horribly saddened by what tRUMP has done to this country.

When we elected Barack Obama I was so proud of the USA, and felt like we were very much on the path to realizing our potential as a great nation. The election, not once but twice, of a racist, lying, vengeful, rapist criminal has ripped those thoughts from me.

LetMyPeopleVote

(156,236 posts)
8. Polio survivor @LeaderMcConnell responds to RFK Jr aide call to ban polio vaccine
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 07:19 PM
Dec 13

Back in the late 1950s, my sister had polio. She was on crutches for a while but recovered. I still remember taking the polio vaccine. There is no question in my mind that we need this vaccine



DFW

(56,972 posts)
10. So, McTurtle has a chance to prove his conscience is his guide, or his burden
Fri Dec 13, 2024, 09:13 PM
Dec 13

If he votes to confirm, despite this, he's Moscow Mitch McTrash, because his vote endangers a generation of American children, including two of my grandchildren. I'm glad the other two are beyond the reach of any such temporary American insanity. They are American citizens, but they are also German citizens, and Germany has had enough madness in the last 100 years to allow anyone this crazy to get anywhere near the Health Ministry.

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