Trump asks skeptic to probe vaccine safety
Move worries child health experts
WASHINGTON — Presidentelect Donald Trump is reviving long debunked attempts to link vaccines to autism, meeting with a vocal skeptic to discuss chairing a commission on vaccination safety — a move that alarmed child health experts.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with Trump in New York on Tuesday and told reporters that he had agreed to lead the effort, whatever form it takes.
“Presidentelect Trump has some doubts about the current vaccine policies and he has questions about it,” Kennedy said, adding that “we ought to be debating the science.”
To pediatricians, there’s nothing left to debate.
“Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are the most significant medical innovation of our time,” Drs. Fernando Stein and Karen Remley of the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement Tuesday.
Scientists have ruled out a link between vaccines and autism. But Kennedy, son of the late U.S. attorney general and senator, has long argued that vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal may cause autism and has advocated for parents to more easily opt out of childhood vaccinations.
Trump also has voiced vaccine skepticism, on Twitter and said in a debate that autism has gotten “totally out of control.” He went on to say, “I am totally in favor of vaccines, but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time.”
Those are views unsupported by scientific evidence and dismissed as conspiracy theory by experts who find their revival alarming. Vaccination prevents millions of deaths around the world each year. Once-common childhood killers can return if support for immunization wanes: During a 2015 measles outbreak that started at Disneyland, many who fell ill were unvaccinated.
Repeated scientific studies in the U.S. and abroad have found no evidence that vaccines in general or those with thimerosal cause autism.
That preservative has been removed from routine childhood immunizations.
“The science has spoken. Thimerosal is a dead issue,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a critic of anti-vaccine groups. “It is concerning. You have as a president-elect a science denialist.”
A Trump spokeswoman said late Tuesday that although he “enjoyed” his conversation with Kennedy, he had not commissioned a panel.
“The president-elect is exploring the possibility of forming a commission on autism, which affects so many families; however, no decisions have been made at this time,” said the spokeswoman, Hope Hicks.