Trump Fuels Anti-Vax Conspiracies as He Declares Health Secretary Pick RFK Jr is Set to Probe 'Connection' Between Jabs and Autism — Despite Zero Scientific Evidence of Any Link
Donald Trump has asked new Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy to probe link between jabs and autism.
Dec. 10 2024, Published 12:01 p.m. ET
Donald Trump has sparked anti-vax conspiracies by declaring Robert F Kennedy Jr will probe the "connection" between jabs and autism in his new role as Health Secretary.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the President-elect, 78, believes their could be a link between vaccinations and the record number of autism cases in American children over the past 25 years, despite the fact there is no scientific evidence to back up the claims.
Trump supporters were loving the slip-ups, mocking on social media.
Trump spoke about the link when TV interviewer Kristen Davies asked him if he was considering eliminating particular vaccines.
He responded: "When you look at what's going on with disease and sickness in our country, something's wrong.
"If you take a look at autism, go back 25 years, autism was almost non-existent.
"It was, you know, one out of 100,000 and now it's close to one out of 100."
Trump previously said Kennedy, pictured here with wife Cherly Hines, would be allowed to 'go wild' on health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every 36 children in the U.S. were diagnosed with autism in 2020, compared with one in 150 in 2000.
Kennedy, a noted vaccine sceptic, has repeatedly peddled discredited theories the condition is caused by childhood vaccinations.
Speaking in 2023, he said: "I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.
"We should have the same kind of testing place or control trials that we have for other every other medication.
"Vaccines are exempt from pre-licensing control trials, so that there's no way that anybody can tell the risk profile of those products, or even the relative benefits of those products before they're mandated. We should have that kind of testing."
Trump, pictured with wife Melania, says the record-high number of autism diagnoses is 'scary'.
Trump – who has previously said Kennedy would be allowed to “go wild” on health – said his health secretary pick would not "reinvent the wheel totally".
He added: "He's not going to upset any system."
But on autism, he continued: "Somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it.
"When you talk about autism, because it was brought up, and you look at the amount we have today versus 20 or 25 years ago, it's pretty scary."
Scientists have attributed the rise in autism diagnoses to improved screening methods while saying it is caused by a complex mix of factors, including genetics, environment and conditions during pregnancy and birth.
The World Health Organization has definitely ruled out a connection between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine or other childhood inoculations.
Research led by the British doctor Andrew Wakefield asserting a link between autism and the MMR jab was later discredited, with the Lancet, a medical journal, issuing a full retraction of a paper it had published based on it.
Wakefield was later banned from practicing in Britain after being found by the country’s general medical council to have broken its rules on research and to have acted "dishonestly" and with a "callous disregard" for children's health.
Kennedy Jr was Trump pick to be his new Health Secretary, despite previously rivaling him for Presidential candidacy.
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Wakefield reportedly attended an inaugural ball marking the start of Trump's first presidency the previous year at which he was quoted calling for a shakeup of the US medical establishment.
"What we need now is a huge shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a huge shakeup," he said. "We need that to change dramatically."
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