(Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview on Thursday that he will have a “big discussion” about ending childhood vaccination programs with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, and might scrap some vaccines.
When asked if his administration could get rid of some vaccines, Trump said: “It could if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end,” Trump said.
“We’re going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it,” Trump told Time magazine.
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Asked if he thinks childhood autism is linked to vaccines, Trump said: “No, I’m going to be listening to Bobby,” referring to Kennedy. Trump said he had a lot of respect for Kennedy and his views on vaccinations.
Trump has suggested in the past that vaccines might be linked to autism.
When asked on Thursday if he agreed with Kennedy on a link between vaccines and autism, he said, “I want to see the numbers.
“At the end of the studies that we’re doing, and we’re going all out, we’re going to know what’s good and what’s not good,” Trump said.
Kennedy, who opposed state and federal COVID-19 restrictions and was accused of spreading misinformation about the virus, has sown doubts over the safety and efficacy of vaccines for years, including asserting a link between vaccines and autism.
Many of the claims that vaccines cause autism can be traced back to a retracted 1998 study published in medical journal The Lancet. The paper, written by British doctor Andrew Wakefield, has been widely discredited.
Kennedy disputes the anti-vaccine tag, but chaired the Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization that focuses on anti-vaccine messaging.
“He (Kennedy) does not disagree with vaccinations, all vaccinations. He disagrees probably with some,” Trump said.
During a presidential debate in his 2016 White House campaign, Trump said he was “totally in favor of vaccines,” but added: “Do them over a longer period of time, same amount, but just in little sections. And I think you’re going to have, I think you’re going to see a big impact on autism.”
(Reporting by Tim Reid in Washington; Editing by Alex Richardson, Franklin Paul and Mark Porter)
