As we get closer to confirming candidates for the various government agencies under newly elected Donald Trump, there are many that cause concern, but the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is among my highest.
While I appreciate his views on healthy food, I am especially frightened by his views on vaccines and those around him advocating for the elimination of the required polio vaccine.
Many are too young to remember the horror of this disease. Those in my generation have friends, colleagues, mothers stricken with polio. It is a highly contagious disease, transmitted through oral and fecal contact. A child can put a doll in his/her mouth and another child can come along and do the same and the virus is transmitted.
I worry for our children but I also think it would have disastrous consequences for our trade with other countries that have eradicated polio. They will not want to do business with a polio-infected country. All this and don’t forget the 77 Nobel laureates in medicine, chemistry, physics and economics who are also opposed to this nomination.
Maggie Laun, Millcreek
