A lawyer who is currently helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials once petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval for multiple critical childhood vaccines, including the polio vaccine.
Aaron Siri, managing partner at Siri & Glimstad LLP, has a history of challenging the FDA to pause or completely withdraw various vaccines – a move which raises concerns given Kennedy’s historic anti-vaccine rhetoric.
In 2022, Siri asked the FDA Commissioner, on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, to cease its use of the polio vaccine in infants and toddlers.
The petition claimed the vaccine was not properly tested to ensure it was safe, despite its decade-long use protecting millions of children from contracting the disease which can cause paralysis.
He filed a similar petition to withdraw a hepatitis B vaccine in children in 2020.
In 2021, Siri asked the FDA, again on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, to pause its use of six childhood vaccines that protect against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and hepatitis A until they disclosed information about aluminum in them.
It appears Siri already possesses a strong influence on Kennedy because he is helping him question and choose potential leaders for top federal health jobs. One person familiar with conversations told the New York Times, that the two have questioned potential candidates about their views on vaccines.
The revelation, first reported by the New York Times, is alarming due to Kennedy’s status as the Health and Human Services secretary nominee.
Kennedy already faces an uphill battle to get his nomination approved by the Senate because he has made anti-vaccine statements in the past and elevated health-related conspiracy theories. Many, including 75 Nobel Prize winners, have urged senators not to confirm him due to his criticisms of mainstream medicine.
In the past, Kennedy has linked vaccines to autism – a debunked theory with no scientific or medical proof. He’s claimed that “no vaccine” is safe and effective – which is also false.
He has also attributed mental health issues, like those that drive people to commit mass shootings, to pharmaceuticals. Both antidepressant use and mass shooting occurrences have increased in the last several decades, the scientific community has found “no biological plausibility” to back a link between the two, according to Ragy Girgis, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, per the New York Times.
Vaccines are proven to be a crucial and effective way to prevent the spread of deadly diseases.
Kennedy has assured people he will not “take away” vaccines, as does Siri, and claims he is not anti-vax. But it is unclear what he will do with vaccines should he be confirmed.
A spokesperson for Kennedy told the New York Times, “Mr. Kennedy has long said that he wants transparency in vaccines and to give people choice.”
