Both before and since taking office, Donald Trump has been upsetting doctors, scientists, and parents all over the U.S. as he has consistently lent an ear to anti-vaccine quacks: people who, despite all evidence to the contrary, believe that vaccinations are dangerous, and many of whom suggest that they are linked to (or cause) autism.
A new poll just released, however, suggests that most Americans believe that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks, putting Trump seemingly at odds with the populace and calling into question why he is giving a platform to discredited opinions to start with.
As has been documented many times over but bears repeating until there isn't a single anti-vaxxer left in the country, there is no connection between vaccines and autism. One study published documenting a connection was retracted after publication in 1998, and the British author was stripped of his license to practice medicine. A committee of his peers further found that he was likely guilty of misconduct with the children in his study, and that the data supporting his conclusion had been falsified. This man, Andrew Wakefield, is the source of nearly all current debates on the efficacy and safety of vaccines. He is now known only as an anti-vaxxer, and is the director of a widely discredited “documentary,” Vaxxed.
Wakefield was spotted at the Inauguration Ball for Donald Trump in addition to having an in-person meeting with him while he was on the campaign trail, while another famous anti-vaxxer, Robert Kennedy Jr., had a recent meeting with Trump as well. Though Kennedy reported that Trump had asked him to lead a commission to investigate the safety of vaccines, that position has yet to materialize. Still, Trump himself has indicated, via his favorite medium, Twitter, that he himself doubts if vaccines aren’t well, bad: “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!” He wrote this back in 2014. So his thoughts on the issue are quite well-documented.
And yet, that Pew Research poll puts him at odds with most Americans: 88 percent say that the benefits of the MMR vaccine “outweigh the risks,” with only 1 in 10 reporting that they do not. A poll from last year found that 82 percent of people think that children should be vaccinated to go to school. These are overwhelming numbers, and Trump’s administration should not ignore them.
