RFK Jr ‘tried to stop COVID vaccine rollout just six months after it started’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly tried to stop the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine six months after it started.

The son of the former attorney general of the United States and Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services has faced backlash over his views on vaccines in general.

He has emphasized that he is not necessarily anti-vaccine and supports the jab against the polio virus.

Investigating RFK Jr.’s past however, has brought to light a petition he filed with the Food and Drug Administration to stop authorizing the shots and not approve any new ones.

In May 2021, when he filed the petition, the New York Times says the jab is estimated to have already saved around 140,000 lives.

However, Kennedy — whose nonprofit group Children’s Health Defense filed the petition — argued that the vaccine’s benefits were not worth the health risks and that reasonable treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were available.

Trials have shown that ivermectin does nothing to prevent Covid patients from getting sick, with more than 100 Americans dying from the virus in 2020 alone despite taking hydroxychloroquine.

Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, called the petition a “huge mistake.”

Several other members of the public health organization agreed, and the FDA denied his request within months.

Kennedy — whose confirmation hearings have yet to be scheduled — did not respond to requests for comment.

In November he seemed to focus on the COVID shot, to NBC: ‘I wouldn’t have blocked it straight away. I would have made sure we had the best science, and there was no effort to do that at the time.”

Trump has had a complicated relationship with the jab program, “Operation Warpspeed,” for which he has tried to take credit amid reluctance from some of his base.

In 2021, he claimed that the world could have seen 100 million deaths from COVID-19 if his government had not developed the vaccine.

However, he has hired Kennedy to manage the nation’s health care system, suggesting a reversal from his past boasts about the vaccine.

Trump appears to be backing Kennedy, saying last month: “I think he’s going to be a lot less radical than you would think.” I think he has a very open mind, otherwise I wouldn’t have put him there.’

But a recent story about Kennedy’s top adviser, Aaron Siri, pushing to withdraw approval of the polio vaccine now appears to jeopardize his nomination among Republicans.

Following a New York Times story highlighting Siri’s efforts and Kennedy’s previous comments on vaccines — many of which were not positive — longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, released a statement asking everyone who tried to make the treatment worse.

Now the HHS nominee is making sure people know where he stands.

“I’m all for the polio vaccine,” the 70-year-old said as he arrived at the Capitol complex Monday for meetings with senators.

It was his first time on the Hill since being nominated by Trump, and other than his vaccine comment, Kennedy said nothing else and took no further questions.

Last week, after the Siri story, 82-year-old McConnell used his personal experience to attack Trump’s favorite health secretary.

“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not only uninformed — they are dangerous,” McConnell said of Kennedy’s adviser’s bid, without naming Kennedy.

“Anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the new administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of involvement in such efforts.”

“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and holds the promise of eradicating a terrible disease,” McConnell wrote.

As a toddler, McConnell’s upper left leg was paralyzed by the disease in 1944. However, the treatment available at the time probably saved him from disability for the rest of his life.

About ten years later, the first successful vaccine was developed by American doctor Jonas Salk. The disease is now widely considered extinct in the US because of the vaccine.

‘Sir. Kennedy believes that the polio vaccine should be available to the public and should be thoroughly and well studied,” a Kennedy spokesperson said in response to McConnell.

Kennedy has drawn links between vaccines and rising rates of autism, something Trump himself said at a news conference on Monday, seemingly defending his nominee’s position on the issue.

‘If you look at autism, thirty years ago I heard figures like 1 in 200,000, 1 in 100,000. Now I hear numbers like 1 in 100. So something is wrong,” Trump said.

Although health professionals say there is no clear line between the two, cases of autism have increased dramatically in recent years. Some medical professionals say the increase in cases should be attributed to clearer diagnostic criteria.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately one in 36 American children is diagnosed with autism.

In 2000, however, that number was closer to one in 150, according to CDC data.

“Something is wrong,” Trump continued. “And we’re going to find out.”