Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now serving as Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, is facing renewed scrutiny after a resurfaced video showed him disputing the role of vaccines in eliminating polio. In the clip , Kennedy claimed it was “mythology” to credit vaccines with eradicating the disease, instead suggesting that the banning of the pesticide DDT was the decisive factor.

His remarks were quickly flagged on X with a Community Note correcting the timeline of events. The context provided noted that DDT was banned in the United States in 1972—nearly two decades after the introduction of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine in 1953.

By 1957, polio cases and deaths had already dropped dramatically due to widespread vaccination campaigns, years before DDT’s prohibition.

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