Polio vaccine isn't going anywhere, Trump says
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President-elect Trump on Dec. 7 in Paris, France. Photo: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images
President-elect Trump called himself a "big believer" in the polio vaccine on Monday but said he's not a fan of mandates.
Why it matters: The comments come after reports that an adviser to Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was seeking to revoke the approval of a polio vaccine, called IPOL, for children.
Driving the news: "You're not going to lose the polio vaccine," Trump said during a press conference Monday. "That's not gonna happen."
- The president-elect said he has friends affected by it and the "moment they took that vaccine, it ended."
- Trump called himself "a big believer in it" before adding that "I think everything should be looked at."
What he's saying: Asked about Kennedy's views on vaccines, Trump said, "I think he's going to be much less radical than you would think. I think he's got a very open mind, or I wouldn't have put him there."
- A representative for Kennedy did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Zoom out: Trump was asked if he thinks schools should require vaccines, to which he said, "I don't like mandates. I'm not a big mandate person."
- He again floated the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism, saying his administration is going to look into "why is the autism rate so much higher than it was 20, 25, 30 years ago?"
Context: Aaron Siri, a lawyer who worked for Kennedy during his presidential campaign, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 on behalf of Informed Consent Action Network to "withdraw or suspend the approval for IPOL for infants, toddlers, and children" on the grounds that the agency didn't conduct sufficient safety studies, documents show.
- Several combination vaccines, which are commonly used in the U.S. to protect against polio and other diseases, would not be impacted.
- The polio vaccine has been in use in the U.S. since 1955 and is deemed safe and effective. It has led to the elimination of natural polio transmission in the country since 1979.
- Kennedy has tried to distance himself from his past anti-vaccine statements.
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