Selection of Kennedy to lead HHS has led to questions about childhood immunization
President-elect Donald Trump appeared to temper Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s long-standing controversial views on vaccines Monday, as Kennedy begins meetings with senators ahead of the Senate confirmation process for his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Speaking during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump defended the polio vaccine, but he didn't go so far as to support vaccine mandates in schools.
"I'm a big believer in it, and I think everything should be looked at, but I'm a big believer in the polio vaccine," he said.
His comments come after The New York Times reported last week that Kennedy's lawyer had previously petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine. Polio is a viral disease that can cause paralysis and death in young children.
The first polio vaccine was developed in 1955. The worst U.S. outbreak of the disease occurred in 1952 and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
"He's going to be very much less radical," Trump said of Kennedy. "But there are problems. We don't do as well as a lot of other nations, and those nations use nothing. And we're going to find out what those problems are."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had polio as a child, on Friday warned against Kennedy's ties to anti-polio vaccine sentiments.
"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," McConnell said in a statement to various news outlets on Friday.
Trump told reporters that he wouldn't ask Kennedy to revoke any vaccine approvals but he wants him to compile a report with what he thinks about vaccines. He said he wants to determine what is contributing to the rise in autism diagnoses in recent years.
Experts have said that the increase is likely attributed to advances in diagnostic capabilities and increased awareness of the condition. Scientific studies have confirmed that vaccines do not cause autism.
Trump said during the press conference that he and Kennedy recently had dinner with the heads of drug manufacturers Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co., where they discussed vaccines. Trump said Americans are paying "far too much" for vaccines than in other countries and pointed to pharmacy benefit managers -- the entities that negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers -- as the culprit.
"I don't know who these middlemen are, but they are rich as hell, and we're going to knock out the middlemen," Trump said. "We're going to get drug costs down at levels that nobody has ever seen before."