Trump says RFK Jr. will investigate the discredited link between vaccines and autism: 'Somebody has to find out' [View all]
Source: NBC News
Dec. 8, 2024, 9:00 AM EST
President-elect Donald Trump suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to run Health and Human Services, will investigate supposed links between autism and childhood vaccines, a discredited connection that has eroded trust in the lifesaving inoculations. “I think somebody has to find out,” Trump said in an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.
Welker noted in a back-and-forth that studies have shown childhood vaccines prevent about 4 million deaths worldwide every year, have found no connection between vaccines and autism, and that rises in autism diagnoses are attributable to increased screening and awareness. “If you go back 25 years ago,” Trump claimed, “you had very little autism. Now you have it.” “Something is going on,” Trump added. “I don’t know if it’s vaccines. Maybe it’s chlorine in the water, right? You know, people are looking at a lot of different things.”
It was unclear whether Trump was referring to opposition by Kennedy and others to fluoride being added to drinking water. Kennedy, the onetime independent presidential candidate who backed Trump after leaving the race, generated a large following through his widespread skepticism of the American health care and food system. A major component of that has been his false claims linking autism to childhood vaccinations. Kennedy is the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine activist group, Children’s Health Defense.
The agency Trump has tasked him with running supports and funds research into autism, as well as possible new vaccines. The debunked link between autism and childhood vaccines, particularly the inoculation against mumps, measles and rubella, was first claimed in 1998 by a British doctor who was later banned from practicing medicine in the United Kingdom. His research was found to be critically flawed and was subsequently retracted. Hundreds of studies have found childhood vaccines to be safe.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-rfk-jr-will-investigate-discredited-link-vaccines-autism-so-rcna183273
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