Francis Ford Coppola is alarmed by the arrival of anti-vaxxers in the Trump administration

Francis Ford Coppola opposes the idea that Donald Trump « change course » on the vaccine, evoking in particular his childhood marked by a long convalescence after being infected with poliomyelitis. In recent weeks, the American medical and scientific communities have been concerned about Donald Trump’s possible appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Department of Health. For several years, the former lawyer has regularly relayed conspiracy theories calling into question the use of certain vaccines, such as that to fight poliomyelitis.

“People do not understand the terrible effects of polio, such as the inability to breathe and being in an iron lung, the inability to walk or total paralysis, are the result of the damage caused by this infection”explains Francis Ford Coppola in an interview with the magazine Deadline . Suffering from this viral disease that invades the nervous system during his childhood, Francis Ford Coppola spent nearly a year bedridden in his home. « I remember the night I had a fever. They took me to the hospital. There were so many children that there were stretchers stacked three or four high in the corridors because there were many more children than there were beds in the hospital.he says. I remember the children in the iron lungs whose faces you could see in the mirrors. They were all crying. »

The director recalls that at that time there was not yet an approved treatment to treat poliomyelitis. “I remember those who told me that I should fight and that I could live a long time, be very active and do whatever I wanted. But still in a wheelchair. That’s when I realized what I was up against. My father did not trust this diagnosis »he says.

 

« The horror is what I saw in a hospital full of screaming children. »

Francis Ford Coppola

Rather than follow the treatment suggested by doctors, his father took him to a charity that helped children with polio. A self-taught nurse preached the idea that the best treatment for children with the disease was to retrain their muscles. « This lady, in four or five months, gradually gave me back the ability to move my left arm »explains Francis Ford Coppola. During this time, “other treatments involved casting limbs to provide immobility, and these patients ended up in wheelchairs or worse, because their muscles had atrophied beyond repair »he says. « The horror was what I saw in a hospital full of screaming children, and it was all finally over, thanks to the wonderful Salk vaccine that arrived two or three years later. »

Francis Ford Coppola judges « absurd » the desire to make the polio vaccine disappear. « There are so many stories about the vaccine, about how many lives it saved in an epidemic that was only getting worse »he emphasizes.

The American press revealed that those close to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, first and foremost his lawyer Aaron Siri, took action with the Food and Drug Administration, responsible for the distribution of drugs, to request the revocation of the polio vaccine. This agency could find itself under the authority of this support for Donald Trump from January 20. Robert Kennedy Jr, although he denies being anti-vax, has repeatedly accused vaccines of being responsible for autism, without providing any scientific proof of his allegations. In 2022, opposing the implementation of vaccination obligations against covid in certain cities in the United States, he compares the policy of the Biden administration to that of Nazi Germany or the GDR at the time of the construction of the Berlin Wall.