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 helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
He is now Trump's nominee to head HHS. Now that he has the support of Senator Bill Cassidy, he is likely to win confirmation.
Aaron Blake notes that RFK Jr's likely victory represents a victory for the lie that vaccines cause autism. Dr. Cassidy's fig leaf consisted of toothless "commitments" from RFK Jr. Aaron Blake at WP:
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) noted last week that many of his constituents cited Kennedy for their decisions not to vaccinate their children. He worried aloud that Kennedy, as HHS secretary, would use his “credibility to undermine” vaccines. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) warned after the vote that it would be a “problem” for him if Kennedy “does actually take a position against the safety of proven vaccines.”.
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Shortly before the committee vote, Trump chimed in on social media to spout the same type of suggestion about vaccines and autism that Cassidy had objected to from Kennedy.
“20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000,” said Trump, who has falsely linked vaccines to autism before. “NOW IT’S 1 in 34. WOW! Something’s really wrong. We need BOBBY!!! Thank You!” (In fact, much of the apparent increase in autism diagnoses owes to increased awareness and changes in how it’s diagnosed.)
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The Economist-YouGov poll showed Trump voters said by a nearly 10-point margin that it’s at least “probably true” that vaccines have been shown to cause autism.
That’s a far cry from where things stood even as recently as four years ago. Back then, the same poll showed Trump voters took the opposite view — that this link was “probably false” — by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
Other polls have also shown a sharp rise in vaccine skepticism on the right.
Gallup showed the percentage of Republican and Republican-leaning voters who said vaccines are more dangerous than the disease they are designed to prevent rising from 12 percent in 2019 to 31 percent in July.
Just 20 percent of GOP-leaning voters outright rejected a link between vaccines and autism; about 6 in 10 said they were unsure.
And recent KFF polling showed the percentage of Republican parents who say they’ve kept their children up to date on childhood vaccines dropping from in the 80s in recent years down to 72 percent.
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About as many Republicans said they had at least a “fair amount” of trust in Trump (84 percent) and Kennedy (81 percent) for health recommendations as said the same for their own doctor (84 percent). They were significantly more likely to trust Trump and Kennedy than National Institutes of Health scientists (51 percent) and state and local health officials (46 percent)
