Any NYT reader looking at the buzzy front page headline below would immediately think that Robert F Kennedy Jr. is a madman. Can he really be an advocate for repealing the polio vaccine, a disease that has killed and crippled tens of millions of kids?

“Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine”

To the ordinary reader, the headline says pretty clearly that Kennedy asked his lawyer to revoke the polio vaccine. The headline makes the shocking accusation that Kennedy is in favor of banning the polio vaccine. There is no other way of interpreting it.

But it is flagrantly false and a gross distortion of the truth. There is not one polio vaccine; there are six different polio vaccines that are used worldwide. Moreover, Aaron Siri, the lawyer in question, does not represent Kennedy in his petition.