When questioned in his hearings to be head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 29, 2025, Robert Kennedy said, “I support the measles and polio vaccines.”
It did not take long for him to change his mind. The head of Robert Kennedy’s handpicked panel of “independent” vaccine advisers has questioned the necessity of the polio vaccine on the grounds that better sanitation and nutrition have rendered it unnecessary (Kelly Hooper, POLITICO, Jan. 26, 2026). There is talk of petitioning for a revocation of polio vaccine approval some time in February. For 70 years, the world has been free of polio, thanks to Jonas Salk and subsequent polio vaccines.
As a child growing up in a small Westchester County, New York, town, summers were hot. Air-conditioning was rare, and fans did not do the job. The only respite for a hot summer day was the town swimming pool. I and my siblings and friends were not allowed to go during the summer months for fear of polio, the dreaded disease we feared most as children — because the pool was considered a possible spreader. Our lives were controlled by fear of polio. For me, it was very personal. I had a cousin who contracted the disease as a child and became permanently bedridden until the day she died. Many others lived and died in iron lungs in those days.
The idea of Mr. Kennedy “canceling” the polio vaccine because he doesn’t believe in vaccines is just unthinkable. How many of us will die from diseases he has allowed to reappear because he does not believe in the science of germ theory, the theory that led to the discovery of all our vaccines, including those for COVID-19 and measles?
P.S. The vaccination schedule currently in place for 17 previously commonplace diseases, including polio, is that endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and 50 other medical organizations. These vaccines have been routinely administered to all children before they enter kindergarten.
Julia Sperry
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
