https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5703667-kirk-milhoan-cdc-polio-vaccine/Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist recently appointed as chair of a highly influential federal vaccine committee, questioned the need for immunizing against illnesses like polio in a podcast interview released Thursday.He argued that public health is not the “first order” of his group.Last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed Milhoan to be chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month.Appearing on the podcast “Why Should I Trust You?” — which explores the gap between scientific data and public trust — Milhoan was asked to discuss how he views the efficacy and risk of vaccines like those for polio and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).“As you look at polio, we need to not be afraid to consider that we are in a different time now than we were then,” he said. “Our sanitation is different, our risk of disease is different and so that those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or not.”During the interview, Milhoan referred to school vaccine requirements as “authoritarian” but rejected the label of “anti-vaxxer.”Brinda Adhikari, one of the podcast co-hosts, noted many people consider both the MMR and polio vaccines as safe, particularly because of their significant “proven” history in helping to lower the rates of these diseases. Milhoan pushed back on this characterization.“I think that ‘proven’ might be a little bit harsh, a little bit stronger, for what it’s done because of the pre-vaccine decrease in incidence of disease, but I understand what you’re saying,” he said.
“Remember, we’re just an advisory panel. We can’t make any declarations. We can tell you what we believe the evidence shows and we try to do that as transparently and honestly as the data supports and present data,” Milhoan added.“But it’s been very important to us, members of committee, is that what we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health, but individual autonomy to the first order.”His comments come the same week that the U.S. hit 12 months of consistent domestic transmission of measles, potentially meaning the U.S. will lose its status as a country where the disease was eliminated. American health officials say they are coordinating with global health authorities but indicated they did not believe losing this status was significant.Journalist and co-host Tom Johnson asked Milhoan for his philosophy on individual autonomy, giving the example of one parent choosing not to get their child vaccinated against measles and that child subsequently passing the disease on to an immunocompromised child. He asked Milhoan where the line was for him when it came to individual autonomy and infringing on another person’s safety.“I would say I agree there’s, there are two different things at play here. We don’t take one over the other,” Milhoan said. “Let’s just flip that the other way around. What if the child gets a measles vaccine to protect your immunocompromised child and gets a negative consequence from that? Wasn’t that your child causing that child to be harmed?”Johnson pushed back on this, arguing that view depended on one’s belief that established science was incorrect. Milhoan responded that these were “hard decisions” and that he wouldn’t use “established science” because “we’ve gotten trouble with that.”
When Johnson noted that as ACIP chair, Milhoan would be asked review a significant amount of data when carrying out his duties, much of which has been built on long-established science, Milhoan dismissed this as “not science.”“Science is what I observe,” Milhoan said. “And is there a confirmation bias in what is established science?”
>>1481228Based. Trust the experts
>>1481228Where do they keep finding these fucking retards?
>>1481242Found the science denier
>>1481228Now these are experts I can trust
>>1481232The experts have already resigned, this dipshit doesn't even know what science is, or that it's entire purpose is eliminating bias.
>>1481253Found the retard that "did his own research"
>>1481248Science isn't the opinion of one moron, it is a generational, peer reviewed body of knowledge. This would be like calling someone who suits on flat-earthers a geography denier.
it's a shame that lil jon is a proverbial philosopher by comparison in this markedly anti-intellectual age
>>1481256We get it, you're a conspiracy theorist that thinks he knows better than the professionals
>>1481255You find a fucking mirror? Surprised you can stomach the sight of that stupid piece of shit.
>>1481258I'm literally a medical professional with a degree in micro, dipshit
>>1481260Kek, bro watched some Facebook moms and thinks he knows better than the CDC
>>1481262Oh shit he's got a PhD in reiki and healing crystals. KEK
>>1481263You are clearly unburned with an abundance of education or you'd be able to see the bullshit too. You should see if you can take a bio 101 course.
>>1481267>unburned Definitely found the horsepaste enthusiast
>>1481265Is that what you think micro is? Your intellect is almost as impressively stunted as your dick.
>>1481269Post diploma, kek. Bro went it the joe rogan school of medicine
>>1481268Unburdened. Sorry, autocorrect fucked me. I'll take that over being a water-headed simpleton any day. What's your excuse?
>>1481270Joe Rogan would side with the anti-vaxxer, dipshit, what are you even on about?
>>1481228>He argued that public health is not the “first order” of his group.Jesus FUCKING christ.
>>1481272Correct, he would side with science deniers like (you)
>>1481232>Trust the expertsA pediatric cardiologist isn't an epidemiologist. He is literally not an expert on this.That is like saying you should trust a seismologist on global warming.
>>1481281Post diploma or gtfo
>>1481284>there hasn't been a polio epidemic for yearsCool! And why is that, anon?
>>1481293People shit in the toilet now, Ramesh
>>1481298Nope, not quite! Come on, you racist cunt, you can do it, you know this one. It’s starts with V!
>>1481305You do realize polio is primarily spread from eating shit, yes? We don't have this problem in countries without large Indian populations
>>1481309Thank god I don't live in Texas
>>1481309>You do realize polio is primarily spread from eating shit, yes?No it isn't you retard. Did someone not fully wash their hands before handling anything that was then in contact with food? Infected. Did someone with it sneeze on something? Infected. Did you get coughed on? Infected.The only way to completely protect yourself from polio is to either completely isolate yourself or just get the fucking vaccine.
>>1481309>We don't have this problem in countries without large Indian populationsTwo things:1. India actually annihilated Polio in their country. They haven't had a single case since 2011.2. The US had a massive Indian population in the 1940s and 50s?
>>1481311>Polio is most commonly spread through the fecal-oral route (poop-to-hand-to-mouth).I understand this is hard for you to understand seeing as you were born in New Delhi
>>1481312Indians have developed immunity from centuries of direct exposure
>>1481313>>1481315No India eradicated it via a vaccination campaign. Do you want to be worse than India? By your own metric if we wind up with polio when they don't, we actually eat more shit than they do.
>>1481316I personally don't interact with jeets so I'm not worried about catching polio
Leave it to MAGA to insist that the eradication and prevention of a disease has nothing to do with the spread of a medicine designed to eradicate and prevent that disease, and everything to do with something something racism. You people are so god damn stupid. So unbelievably fucking dumb.
>>1481328>>1481317Why not use the full term, way to expose you're just a lazy racist and a phone poster.
>>1481330Wash your hands, filthy jeet
>>1481283I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to trust the experts. A thing you just advocated for.If your have a problem with people throwing your words back in your face, maybe you should shut the fuck up more.
>>1481332>A racist and a pussyClassic
>>1481317>>1481328>>1481332It's so fucking funny hearing this when India actually has Polio wiped out.
>>1481377Racism and stupidity go hand in hand.
>>1481377see >>1481315>>1481339cool, i trust the experts at the CDC. why are you denying science after it's been settled?
>>1481380Yeah that's not how polio works. They objectively wiped it out with vaccines. Just like we did, formerly.
Reminder to everyone that trolling and ironic shitposting are against Global Rules 3 and 6. Make the mods and jannies do their jobs by mass reporting posts like@1481232 (no (you) for you, cuntnugget)@1481248 (no (you) for you, cuntnugget)@1481249 (no (you) for you, cuntnugget)
>>1481400natural immunity to polio does exist. a population that is in constant exposure to fecal-oral conditions (india) is more likely to develop natural herd immunity to polio.
>>1481403That's not what happened though; the Indian government had a massive vaccination campaign for over a decade that eventually directly resulted in Polio being eradicated. You cannot eradicate Polio in a population without a vaccination campaign.
>>1481405wrong, basic first world sanitation eliminates the conditions necessary for polio exposure.
>>1481408Did we not have first world sanitation in the 1950s?
>>1481408>wrong, basic first world sanitation eliminates the conditions necessary for polio exposure.Why are we getting new polio cases and India isn't then?
>>1481411we imported 10-20 million third worlders in the last 4 years.
>>1481412Somehow they only got polio here?
>>1481414somalia still has ongoing polio outbreaks.
Ah yes, the old "why do we need IT security when our computers haven't gotten any viruses?"Truly running the government like a business.
>>1481425Yeah wrong again; Somalia's last case of Polio was in 2014.
I'm actually with the ESL retard on this one. Make vaccines optionalLet MAGA die off from easily preventable diseases they won't be able to handle because they killed off their health care and banished their doctors
>>1481232> Based. Trust the quacks.FTFY.
>>1481434>Somalia reported several cVDPV2 cases in recent years, including four new confirmations in early 2025 (all in Bari province, with paralysis onset in late 2024).>In 2024, the country had around 7–8 reported cVDPV2 cases.
>>1481437Oh, sorry, their last case of WILD Polio was in 2014. They still have some stragglers who didn't get vaccinated and get the other variant.>>In 2024, the country had around 7–8 reported cVDPV2 cases.>7-8>outbreakslmao.
>>1481442>General guides describe an outbreak as "one or more cases of polio in an area that has been polio-free for at least six months," but the modern operational threshold is effectively a single confirmed case (or detection) for response purposes.
>>1481443You're the one saying those single digit number of Somalians are the ones bringing it to the US.
>>1481444>incorrectly claims that migrants are arriving from countries without polio cases>incorrectly claims somali hasn't had outbreaks since 2014>tries semantic pendatry over definition of the word outbreak but gets btfo on that tooand now you're attempting a strawman of my original claim. if you're going to be bad faith you could at least be good at it
>>1481449Your original claim was we were getting third worlders and that was where the polio cases are from. Your evidence to support this is... 7-8 cases. Total.
>>1481451we have people pouring in from all over the world. 39 countries have had polio cases in the last 3 years.
>>1481452>39 countries have had polio cases in the last 3 years.Assuming they're not from Afghanistan or Pakistan, the only countries that still have wild Polio, each of those countries has active cases in the single digits. And those active cases are the vaccine deprived variant, which is not only incredibly rare (literally a 1 in a million chance of occurring, you have better odds of winning the lottery) but also only affects the unvaccinated or immunocompromised.
>>1481454and the US hasn't had a polio case since 2022, which ironically came from a vaccine derived strain.
>>1481461And now we're going to change that because the CDC has been hijacked by quacks. What do you think the end result of making the polio vaccine optional?
>>1481465it already is optional depending on the individual.
>>1481470Yeah if you wanna be a homeschooled retard who doesn't interact with society. Most people would rather do that.
>>1481473you're worried about polio but monkeypox is much more prevalent in recent times. the truth is most of these diseases can be easily avoided with basic social behavioral conditioning.
>>1481477>the truth is most of these diseases can be easily avoided with basic social behavioral conditioning.The truth is most of these disease can be easily eradicated with a vaccination campaign.
>>1481479are you monkeypox vaccinated?
>>1481480Yep.
>>1481485post proof
>>1481228>Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologisThis guy was my baby's doctor.
>>1481477You don't get monkeypox unless you're having sex with gay men, so it's not an epidemic. The gays swallow any vaccine they can get their hands on, they know the risks of their sex life
>>1481377Even more funny that he was so obnoxious that a mod actually came to /news/.
>>1482014Who? The "esl shill" guy?
>>1481228>Our sanitation is different, our risk of disease is different and so that those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or notBasic common sense including the contemporary risk of the disease with modern nutrition and healthcare. Also not every vaccine needs to be given to infants and toddlers. Some vaccines can be delayed into childhood and adulthood. Factually the reason the child vaccine schedule is compressed so much is because they are hedging that parents won't be digiligent in completing a more spread out shot schedule.The compressed and younger shot schedule is actually more risky because younger children are at a higher risk of adverse effects and a worse outcome if adverse reactions happen, plus multiple vaccines means a higher dose of adjuvents especially if the shots aren't dosed as a combined shot. The adjuvent causes an immune reaction and your body searches for something to react to, ideally this is the dead or weaked virus of the vaccine, but it can instead result in developing an allergy or autoimmune disorder.
>>1481228There are still people alive today in America with polio injuries. I grew up with a family friend whose knee bent at an unnatural angle backwards when he walked because he had polio as a kid. These fucks are dangerous and retarded.
>>1482307Vax status?
>>1482307>whose knee bent at an unnatural angle backwardsThat's a physical injury, not from polio.
>>1482546Polio actually causes wasting and weakness in the legs far more than it does the more iconic iron lung-required style. Even the wikipedia page image is of a man with a visibly shrunken and twisted leg.>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio#/media/File:Polio_lores134.jpg
>>1482550Jesus christ.
>>1482551Yeah this is what Polio looks like. It destroys the nerve cells in your limbs; your brain literally physically can no longer signal them to do anything. Over time they atrophy, losing all the muscles and leaving them as a shriveled husk that can barely be moved. But the worst part is that it isn't numbed; limbs paralyzed by polio still retain full sensation. It is legitimately worse than if the limb was simply amputated; you not only retain all ability to feel pain in that limb, but you literally have to feel the limb die. All the swelling, ulcers, gangrene, whatever else that comes as a result of a part of your body completely atrophying? Feeling that is now all your limb is good for. And because polio destroys your nerve cells, there is legitimately no way to cure or undo it once it happens. You are stuck with that, forever, or at least until you get to the late stages and the doctors decide to run the risk of cutting it off completely.Polio is a horrible fucking disease. There is a very good reason why even poor and corrupt countries agreed to undergo full vaccination campaigns to eradicate it. The fact we have retards openly trying to effectively bring it back by dismissing the vaccine as no big deal is fucking awful; and you know those people are vaccinated so they'll never have to face the consequences of doing so.
>>1481280kek>>1481477>the truth is most of these diseases can be easily avoided with basic social behavioral conditioning.Wrong. You just need to go outside and get more dirt under your nails :^)>>1482095What's the exact risk increase on shorter vs. longer vaccination timelines?
>>1481380>cool, i trust the experts at the CDCCool, can I see the statements from the expert epidemiologists at the CDC you're trusting?A janitor isn't an expert in epidemiology.
>>1482559>Wrong. You just need to go outside and get more dirt under your nailspolio isn't transmitted by dirt under the nails.>>1482593>A janitor isn't an expert in epidemiology.milhoan is a doctor.
Newsflash retards, with simple search tools you can find the recommended vaccine schedules and the white papers for each and every vaccine that lists all ingredients, efficacy and adverse reaction rates. If you are a parent you at minimum should be able to read the white paper for every vaccine they receive before they receive it.
>>1482643Yeah it is. Kids put their fingers in their mouths all the time. Actually we should encourage it. Dirt and poop under nails causes polio causes immunity. We all win
>>1482735if you're letting your kids play in shit covered dirt, you have bigger problems than getting them vaccinated
>>1482643>milhoan is a doctor.Who isn't an expert on epidemiology. Might as well be a janitor.
>>1482643>milhoan is a doctor.He's a cardiologist. Making him the authority on infectious diseases is like putting an electrical engineer in charge of designing the structure of a skyscraper. The skills don't carry over.
>>1482939>There's no infectious diseases that affect the heart.You heard it here first, on /news/
>>1483022An epidemiologist has very different training than a cardiologist. He probably knows a good bit about infectious disease that effects the heart, but less about those that effect the stomach or liver. Medical knowledge tends to be very specialized, because it is an immense body of knowledge.That you don't understand this is already alarming. That you can only argue with a strawman where you literally change what your opponent says, dragging them down to your own mental deficiency, means you have no valuable input here. I bet you're the kind of person who has masturbated more than you've brushed your teeth. Go back to eating paste off your shit-covered fingers.
>>1483022Anon he knows how to treat the damage of those, not how to properly prevent spread nor what should and should not be vaccinated against. Polio can't affect the heart directly and he's giving takes about whether or not we need that; same for the other three. He's completely unqualified to be a deciding factor on how to handle these these things.Again, this is the equivalent to saying "Well skyscrapers have electrical wiring in them, so let's have the electrical engineer design the whole building"
>>1483037>>1483035Tell me more about your obsessive stalking. How much do you know about what he knows. What's his favorite color? What's the best bush to hide in?
>>1483041>No obviously he actually has a full epidemiology degree hidden up his assAnon do you go up to electrical engineers and also assume they have equal knowledge of construction to a civil engineer? It's not even like he's a general practitioner; he's already a specialist.
I'm assuming both criminal charges will be brought about against everyone involved in bringing back polio and all the measles outbreaks along with civil suits for any think tank and anti vaxxer groups that caused these outbreaks will happen.
>>1483022Genuinely waste management has more to do with preventing the spread of infectious disease than cardiology. Maybe you should get a 2nd opinion from a CDC janitor.
>>1483045>Anon do you go up to electrical engineers and also assume they have equal knowledge of construction to a civil engineer? It's not even like he's a general practitioner; he's already a specialist.No, because one specializes in buildings and the other specializes in eletrical.However, is that really an apples to apples comparison when it comes to medicine or is that just a ridiculous argument?For instance, could a knowledge gap in the medical field be bridged easier than one in completely different fields?Why are you making me reply to your retard-level bullshit?
>>1483056>However, is that really an apples to apples comparison when it comes to medicine or is that just a ridiculous argument?YES you fucking brainlet. The human body is very complex; that's why specialists are a thing in medicine in the first place. The world's best surgeon would be terrible at diagnosing a virus, the world's most knowledgeable microbiologist would kill someone on the operating table if he had to do open heart surgery. If anything the skills carry over LESS than they do in engineering and architecture.
>>1483056If you're telling me you don't understand the analogy then retard-level bullshit would be too smart for you. No one is making you do anything, dipshit, just keep your brain dead opinions inside and go touch grass.
>>1483056>For instance, could a knowledge gap in the medical field be bridged easier than one in completely different fields?Conceding there is a knowledge gap destroys your argument that the person in question is an expert.Also the difference between a civil and electrical engineer is maybe 2 years of training at most (half the degree is math classes common to both and gen ed shit). Changing medical specialization requires up to 3 years.So to answer your question, no.
>>1483061It's complex and a medical degree would give you all the knowledge to study other fields in which you already would have knowledge in as a medical scientist.Comparing that to different types of engineers... If you don't know how retarded that is, you're beyond help.>>1483062Yes, I do understand false equivalence, thus why I said it wasn't an apples to apples comparison. Medical science is apples to apples, different fields of engineering are apples to oranges. And I understand that's why you made the comparison off the cuff. And the way human psychology works, you now feel obligated to defend your stupid fucking comparison no matter how wrong you know it to be.Your defense is DENIED. Just stop.>>1483063Is there though? Do you know what he knows? He's a pediatric cardiologist, BTW. Pediatric doctors being specialized in children's health, which would include vaccines.And the point in the article was it's a different age, and that there are risks when administering any type of drug. I take his word of online liggerals any day.
>>1483077>I take his word of online liggerals any day.* I'll take his word over online liggerals any day.For the faggot who will complain about me taking a break from this post and losing my train of though.
>>1483077So retard-level bullshit IS too smart for you, got it.
>>1483080I'm not trans.
>>1483077>Medical science is apples to apples, different fields of engineering are apples to oranges.You have no fucking idea what you're talking about then. There are different degrees for different fields of medicine the same way there are for different fields of engineering. >He's a pediatric cardiologist, BTW. Pediatric doctors being specialized in children's health, which would include vaccines.No, that means he's specialized in children CARDIOLOGY you retard.
The real reason we need polio vaccines is because fags are scared.>Polio is spread primarily through the fecal-oral routeHmm. Sounds gay as fuck to me. I hope all gay activists get untreatable AIDS and catch polio.
>>1483087>To become a pediatric cardiologist, you must first complete a three-year residency in pediatrics, followed by a three-year fellowship in pediatric cardiology. This training prepares you to diagnose and treat heart conditions in children.Hmmm. Am I the retard?
>>1483093>followed by a three-year fellowship in pediatric cardiology>"Hmmm. Am I the retard?"Yes.
>>1483088Do you think the people who cook and serve your food follow strict FDA hand-washing guidelines?Tell me you're too stupid to make decisions for yourself without telling me you support a fascist pedophile.
>>1483096As long as they aren't gay they probably won't have polio though. So, maybe ban homosexuality again?
>>1483095Wait, you're telling me that training as a pediatrician doesn't make one a pediatrician now?And I'm supposed to believe other things you say now?weird.
>>1483100A pediatrician isn't a vaccine specialist like you want to pretend. Maybe if he was a pediatric epidemiologist you'd have some kind of point, but he isn't.
>>1483077>Is there though?Yes. You conceded there was. I'm not gonna debate a point you agreed to cause you couldn't tap dance fast enough.I accept your concession.
>>1483117Most people who develop vaccines aren't epidemiologists however. Virologists develop them mostly along with biologists.Epidemiology is more like a data driven administrative role.
>>1483119What?
>>1483164I don't care what you think you do or don't do. You're a fucking idiot.
>>1483190Says the idiot who thinks PEDIATRIC cardiologists are trained as pediatricians and that epidemiologists are vaccine specialists. Perhaps you need to look within for the inner idiot before casting outward judgement.In fact with the account of arguments you lose here, a rational person would ask, "Am I the idiot?", if one were rational and engaging with others in good faith. Which liggerals are not and do not do. Since they have no core principals limiting their behavior and exist solely to satisfy their ethereal ends which always seem to be sucking billionaire cock, but for justice.
>>1483198>Phone posting>Waiting for the "esl shill" spambot
>>1483201wow, i'm really in your head rent free at this point huh
>>1483206You're the local always online retard that constantly slabs esl shill like it's something clever to say. You're an inevitability of posting here. And a retard that contributes nothing, not even clever trolling.
>>1483213Not virologists. Why not educate yourself by yourself a bit?
>moron leftists again playing dumb and relying only on their preapproved source of authority and dismissing any other authority as not authoritativeAnd completely refusing to read the warning label written on the side of the medication or read the white papers that the warning label is based on.
>>1483615if libs had any capacity for critical thinking they wouldn't have taken the trumpvax
>>1483819>>1483615I thought all the vaccine takers were supposed to be dead by now? Huh guess you guys are morons.
>>1484301That was never a claim anyone outside of /pol/ tards made.
