During an interview with Time Magazine for its 2024 Person of the Year feature, President-elect Donald Trump says he may consider altering childhood vaccination programs in the United States, raising questions about vaccine safety and efficacy. Trump’s comments, paired with his appointment of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have reignited debates around a theory linking vaccines to autism.
In the interview, Trump stated he plans to have a “big discussion” with Kennedy about the future of vaccination programs. While Trump did not explicitly claim vaccines cause autism, he expressed concern. “The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible,” he said. “If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it.”
He also announced plans for what he described as “very serious testing” to determine the safety of vaccines. However, vaccine safety has been extensively studied, with overwhelming evidence showing no link between vaccines and autism—a claim originating from a retracted 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield.
The idea of a connection between vaccines and autism has been discredited by scientific research for over two decades. Studies consistently show that rising autism diagnoses are primarily due to expanded diagnostic criteria, heightened awareness, and broader access to screening.
Wakefield’s study, which initially suggested a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, was later retracted by The Lancet. The journal deemed the conclusions “utterly false” following revelations of methodological flaws and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Wakefield subsequently lost his medical license for what regulators described as “dishonest and irresponsible” conduct.
Despite this, the debunked theory continues to circulate in anti-vaccine circles, which Kennedy has been a prominent part of for years. Kennedy has said he does not plan to remove vaccines from the market but has previously questioned their safety.
During the interview, Trump suggested some vaccines might be scrutinized under his administration. “He [Kennedy] does not disagree with vaccinations, all vaccinations. He disagrees probably with some,” Trump said.
Public health advocates have raised alarms about the potential consequences of vaccine skepticism at the federal level. Vaccines are credited with virtually eradicating or significantly reducing diseases such as polio, measles, and whooping cough in the United States. A decline in vaccination rates could lead to the resurgence of these preventable illnesses.
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10 Responses
This statement in the article “However, vaccine safety has been extensively studied, with overwhelming evidence showing no link between vaccines and autism” is a complete lie! If any scientists tries to study it, they loose all their funding! Look up(google) Dr. Exley if you don’t believe me.
Of course there will be vaccines, just safer ones. What will be gone is the Zero-Liability and low testing standards (no real saline placebo monkey business) they enjoyed since the Regan Act, but more recently exploited. Stop with these silly healdlines.
“Studies consistently show that rising autism diagnoses are primarily due to expanded diagnostic criteria, heightened awareness, and broader access to screening.”
Even if you have zero medical knowledge, their chutzpah in claiming the above means that they’re dirty liars.
It would be nice if SOMEONE could investigate why we need to start shooting up our kids for STDs from the moment they are born.
That’s why people don’t trust the system, because the minute someone questions the scientific community, you get knock out of the park, maybe for good reasons, but it does make people think why am I not allowed to question it.
MAGA is now MAMMA. Make America Measles and Mumps Again. Basically Trump will trigger inflation with insane tariffs and deportations. His protectionist policies will likely trigger a trade war and recession. The average family will need to spend thousands more per year. Trump will have his new goon at the FBI Kash Patel stop surveillance of White Supremacist (neo Nazi) groups that support him. His new defense secretary with no experience but lots of crusader and white supremacy tattoos will soon be confirmed. The new DNA will be pro-Assad and pro-Putin. Trump will cut SNAP Benefits, Head Start and Healthcare subsides. Frum families will all suffer. And now Trump says he doesn’t trust Netanyahu and the war in Gaza must end. Hope the 95 percent of frum people who voted for him are feeling really good.
theres plenty of cases even if the studies have been whitewashed. i know two in one family. both 2 years apart and both within 2 days of receiving a vaccine as a baby
its the best news ever for vaccines to be checked for more safety and the babies being much older when receiving vaccines.
believe it or not YWN editors, online news, and big pharma sponsored studies, is not necessarily G-ds honest truth
LAmother, autism tends to become apparent around the same age that kids get their first vaccines, but that doesn’t mean one is causing the other. Kids also tend to start walking around that age, does that mean that vaccines cause kids to walk? Obviously not.
Big win for Polio!
This article is so full of baloney that I don’t know where to start. I’ll only say this: Be careful Mr. Kennedy, as soon as you prove that vaccines are unsafe (and the studies are all there already), the American government, and many others too, will face bankruptcy as a result of the MILLIONS of lawsuits that will be filed against them by people who were vaccine-damaged as a result of years of lies that they were fed by those governments.