In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.
Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen."
He recently ran for president as an independent and has now endorsed Trump. If Trump wins, RFK could get a major job in the administration.
Matt Field at The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:
It’s unclear exactly what position Kennedy would fill should Trump return to the White House, but some experts worry about putting Kennedy anywhere near the vaccine policymaking machinery of federal health agencies, two of the most important parts of which being the advisory committees to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) makes recommendations on whether to approve vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends vaccines for use, determinations that states rely on to set their own school vaccine requirements....Dorit Reiss, who researches vaccine law and policy at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, worries about Kennedy having the ability to shape how government data is presented. She fears he will use data access to create flawed and biased reports on vaccines, ones that will come with the imprimatur of the federal government. “He believes what he wants to believe, and he doesn’t care about the data,” she said.
Reiss thinks Kennedy would face obstacles if he were put in a position to influence federal vaccine policy. States rely on the CDC advisory committee as the basis for their own vaccine policies because they consider it to produce expert advice. In theory, an empowered Kennedy might be able to influence who is on that committee, but if that leads to a less credible committee, states will simply ignore its recommendations. Fill the committee with people like discredited former UK doctor Andrew Wakefield, who produced a now retracted study that linked vaccines to autism, and it will not have the prestige it currently enjoys, Reiss said.
But the committee does have a few direct levers to pull on vaccines, Reiss said. The CDC advisory committee also makes recommendations, that if approved by the CDC director, determine which vaccines insurers participating in the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace must cover. The committee also makes recommendations about which vaccines to provide under a CDC program to provide recommended vaccines to low-income children.
