Congressman Cohen, a Polio Survivor and Post-Polio Victim, says it’s His Duty to ask Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Resign

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), watched Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testify before the Senate Finance Committee today and released the following statement:

“Despite having been a friend of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as a polio survivor and post-polio syndrome victim and after having watched Kennedy testify before the Senate Finance Committee, it is my duty on behalf of all polio victims past and present to ask him to resign or ask the president to remove him. 

“RFK Jr. is a clear and present danger to every child and to the general health of the people of the United States. Questioning the efficacy of the polio vaccine, which was of course not available to those of us who had polio, endangers those for whom it might not be available in the future. Restricting and questioning its efficacy will lead to a reduction in vaccinations and could bring back the polio epidemic in our nation.

“He also has restricted the Covid vaccine, likely leading to more cases of Covid and more unnecessary deaths from the virus. He’s sowing doubt about vaccines for diseases like mumps and measles that children have routinely been vaccinated against. We cannot have the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services throwing the entire vaccine regimen into disarray. It’s dangerous and threatens all Americans.

“I don’t do this lightly because I’ve known Bobby and always had good relations with him. But it’s incumbent on me to speak up as one who knows what life is like without life-saving vaccines, and particularly as one of those affected by polio.”

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