To the Editor:rich 888

Re “Kennedy Aide Filed to Revoke Shot for Polio” (front page, Dec. 16):

A lawyer who is not a doctor but is advising Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has asked the F.D.A. to withdraw approval of the current polio vaccine until, the lawyer says, placebo-controlled trials can be completed.

The Salk polio vaccine, however, was definitely proven safe and effective in a randomized placebo-controlled trial. We know because, as public school children in Queens and New Rochelle, N.Y., we were subjects in that trial in the early 1950s. One of us (Dr. Nancy Angoff) was randomized to receive the real vaccine, and one of us (Dr. Peter Aronson) was randomized to receive the placebo.

At that time, we recall, friends walked with crutches because of previous polio infections, and parents were terrified of polio outbreaks. What we do not recall is our parents, along with those of thousands of other young schoolchildren, approving our participation in the Salk vaccine trials. The vaccine or placebo was given in our elementary schools by nurses in white uniforms as we lined up for shots on three occasions.

It is hard to imagine parents today approving such a thing. But they were fine with it then, out of fear that we could get polio and the hope that this vaccine could end their worry. And it did. Those of us who had gotten the placebo had to come back for the series of three shots.

After the vaccine was improved, it would have been completely unethical to subject anyone, let alone a vulnerable child, to a placebo in a new trial when there was a proven safe and effective way to stop this debilitating and sometimes deadly virus.

But the move backfired in a way that few supporters expected. Californians in 2021 actually tossed nearly 50 percent more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed in 2014, according to data from CalRecycle, California’s recycling agency.

His debunked claims about Haitian migrants stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, helped stir a firestorm over immigration in that community, which has dealt with bomb threats and evacuations after Mr. Trump made his comments.

It would be completely unethical to withdraw approval of the current shot. Mr. Kennedy and his lawyers must know that there are real people, real children, who would pay the price for their poor, uninformed judgment.

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