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 secretary of HHS. Trump has directed him to investigate autism.
Aria Bendix and Randi Richardson at NBC:
Less than three months into 2025, measles cases in the United States have already surpassed last year’s total as the outbreak in West Texas continues to spread.
As of Friday, 320 cases had been reported across 16 states, according to NBC News’ tally of state health department data. That’s compared to 285 cases confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year, which was the highest total since 2019.
The vast majority of this year’s cases, 259, have been in Texas, with another 35 reported in bordering New Mexico. All but four of those cases across the two states were in unvaccinated people or those with an unknown vaccination status.
An unvaccinated, school-aged child in Texas died of measles last month, and an unvaccinated adult who died in New Mexico also tested positive, but the cause of death is still under investigation. Prior to those deaths, the U.S. had not seen a measles fatality in a decade, and a child had not died of measles since 2003.
Measles has been considered eliminated in the U.S. since 2000, meaning it is not continuously spreading, though there are occasional outbreaks. But the country came close to losing that status in 2019, when 1,274 cases were recorded, most of which were associated with outbreaks in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York.
