Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell apparently issued a warning on Friday Robert F Kennedyof President-elect Donald Trump Choose to lead the Department of Health and Human Services after The New York Times reported that one of Kennedy’s top advisers had filed motions to revoke the authorization of a Polio vaccine and several other recordings.

“Anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the new administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of a connection to such efforts,” McConnell said in a statement.

McConnell, a polio The survivor condemned efforts to “undermine public trust in proven cures” such as the polio vaccine.

“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and delivered on the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public trust in proven remedies are not just uninformed – they are dangerous,” McConnell said.

McConnell credited the “miraculous combination of modern medicine and motherly love” with saving him from paralysis when he contracted the disease at age two, and he praised the “miracle” of the “saving power of polio vaccine” for millions of children who came after him.

The Times article largely focused on the work of attorney Aaron Siri for the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), who filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 calling on the FDA to stop approving inactivated polio suspend or withdraw the Sanofi Pasteur vaccine.” , called IPOL.

Siri served as a transition team adviser to Kennedy, who would do so if confirmed by the Senate oversee the FDA and the country’s other public health authorities.

Siri called the Times article a “hit piece” that failed to address the substance of the “legitimate” concerns that were at the heart of the petition he filed on behalf of ICAN.

“ICAN’s petition, filed in 2022, makes a reasonable request that the FDA require a proper clinical trial for IPOL prior to licensure, as required by federal law,” Siri says posted on X

The Times’ report on Siri’s work sparked a new round of backlash against Kennedy DemocratsThey have also been criticizing Trump for months because of his ties to Kennedy.

As HHS Secretary, Kennedy would have done that significant direct authority As the country’s health minister on how vaccines are studied, approved and recommended in the United States. He and his FDA commissioner would also oversee how government lawyers respond to many of the legal battles Siri has waged against the agency over vaccines.

Kennedy himself said he would not impose a ban Vaccinations and has tried to distance itself from the label “anti-vaxxer” and instead calls for further investigation into vaccinations. He recently resigned as chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that watchdog groups have found for years to spread misinformation over vaccine fears.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he might be willing to scrap some vaccines “if I think it’s dangerous” and promised to listen to Kennedy.

“We will have a big discussion. Autism rates are at levels no one ever thought possible. “If you look at the things that are happening, there’s something that’s causing it,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published this week, when asked whether he would agree with a move by Kennedy to end childhood vaccination programs .

Extensive medical research has shown conclusively that vaccinations do not cause autism.

Siri’s petition for ICAN has not made much progress with the FDA since it was submitted in 2022. It’s one of several legal efforts Siri has filed on behalf of anti-vaccine groups, including a 2020 petition on hepatitis B vaccines.

In a 2023 letter responding to the polio petition, the agency’s top vaccine official stated: Dr. Peter Markswrote that the FDA “was unable to make a decision on your petition because it raises questions that require further review and analysis by agency officials.”

Siri’s petition targets IPOL, the only “single antigen” polio vaccine currently recommended for use in the United States. The vaccine was approved in the 1990s.

Many children who are vaccinated against polio often do not receive IPOL, but rather one of several combination vaccines that combine a harmless version of the poliovirus with other recommended antigens for various vaccine-preventable diseases.

According to the CDC, IPOL is “used primarily as a travel vaccine for adults.” The agency says that “the totality of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the safety of polio vaccines.”

Siri has hinted at plans for more petitions to the FDA after Kennedy takes over as head of HHS.

“It will be helpful if there are outsiders attacking from the outside in. For example, the FDA responds to petitions. If you want to license a product, you must submit a petition. If you want a product to be withdrawn or re-evaluated, you usually often have to petition,” Siri told Del Bigtree, ICAN founder and former Kennedy campaign spokesman, on his podcast last month.

“Someone from the outside needs to petition them,” Siri added.

Nikole Killion contributed to this report.