In an interview with TIME Magazine published Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump said that he would discuss ending child vaccination programs with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist he has nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Asked if he would approve of any decision by Kennedy to end vaccination programs — insofar as he has that power, which is largely delegated to the states — Trump cited autism as a reason why he might. "We're going to have a big discussion," he said. "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."
His administration would get rid of some vaccinations if "I think it's dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial," Trump added.
Trump and Kennedy have long invoked a connection between autism and vaccines, even though studies continue to show there is none; most experts believe there are statistically more autistic individuals now than before because of improved diagnostic practices. Many of the claims that vaccines cause autism can be traced back to a retracted 1998 study in The Lancet that has been widely discredited by subsequent research.
Their debunked views on a range of medical topics — and Trump's promises to listen to Kennedy's counsel — have alarmed the scientific community over the possible implications on people's health and safety. After Kennedy embarked on an anti-vaccine misinformation campaign in Samoa, vaccination rates dropped precipitously. A measles outbreak one year later infected 57,000 Samoans and killed 83 of them, mostly young children.
Now Kennedy will not only have an even larger platform, but all the levers of the federal government to enact his vision. Former Trump FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb told CNBC in an interview that, if Kennedy follows through on his pan to end vaccine mandates, "it will cost lives in this country.”
"For every 1,000 cases of measles that occur in children, there will be one death. And we are not good in this country at diagnosing and treating measles,” Gottlieb said.
