Trump, RFK Jr. Nonetheless Gunning for Vaccines as Autism Trigger

As anticipated, President Donald Trump and U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the rostrum Monday afternoon in charge acetaminophen (identified by the model identify Tylenol) for inflicting autism—an assertion that many experts reject. However each males additionally took a while to level the finger at certainly one of their favourite scapegoats: vaccines.

All through yesterday’s information convention saying the HHS’ obvious findings on autism, ostensibly targeted on acetaminophen and folate deficiency, Trump and Kennedy repeatedly circled again to the subject of vaccination. The 2 tossed out acquainted and often debunked speaking factors from the antivaccination motion, such because the supposed risks of taking too many vaccines without delay. These moments, off-script as they might have been, are a powerful sign that RFK Jr. and his allies are nonetheless planning to formally blame vaccines for inflicting autism.

Veering off track

The HHS announcement on autism launched yesterday, not a lot a report as it’s a purported fact sheet, largely involved the medicine acetaminophen and leucovorin, the latter being a drugs used to deal with sure sorts of folate deficiency. Outdoors scientists have already torn aside the findings, arguing they’re based mostly, at finest, on weak and combined proof. However that didn’t cease Trump and RFK Jr. from loudly proclaiming throughout the convention that they’ve come nearer than anybody but to discovering the true reply to rising reported autism charges. Precise consultants say many of the rise is just as a result of higher screening and expanded standards for what qualifies as autism.

Trump actually emphasised the first findings, greater than as soon as yelling at pregnant girls to not take Tylenol and to as a substitute robust out their episodes of ache and fever because it apparently comes with no drawbacks. Leaving apart the distress of getting to bear these signs with out remedy, fever throughout being pregnant could also be a risk factor for neurodevelopmental situations like autism. He additionally wrongly stated that Cuba has no autism, presumably as a result of the nation has lowered entry to acetaminophen.

All that mentioned, it didn’t take too lengthy for Trump to start out ranting about vaccines.

‘An excessive amount of liquid’

In in all probability essentially the most memeable moment, Trump referred to as for the childhood vaccine schedule to be damaged up and additional spaced aside, arguing it’s harmful for infants to be uncovered to too many vaccine elements without delay—together with, it appears, the water used to comprise vaccine pictures.

“Break it up, as a result of it’s an excessive amount of liquid, too many various issues are going into that child at too large a quantity, the scale of this factor, if you have a look at it, it’s like 80 completely different vaccines,” Trump mentioned.

The “an excessive amount of liquid” half appears to be a novel Trumpism, however it’s actually true that many antivaxxers fearmonger in regards to the variety of vaccines youngsters are mandated to obtain, usually by extremely exaggerating the determine as Trump did. Nowhere on this planet is a toddler mandated to take 80 completely different vaccines, or as much as 92, as RFK Jr. has beforehand claimed.

The tally can differ relying on the state’s coverage, however children are typically encouraged to obtain round 15 completely different vaccines earlier than maturity. Many vaccines require boosters, so antivaxxers will attempt to fudge the maths by counting each single dose as a separate vaccine. However in case you even try this for all of the non-annual vaccines, you continue to get roughly 30 doses. Folks, children and adults alike, are additionally usually really useful to get a seasonal flu shot (and till just lately, a daily covid-19 booster), however even in case you included each yearly flu and covid pictures till age 18, you nonetheless wouldn’t get to 80. This fuzzy math is pointless anyhow, since just some childhood vaccines are literally mandated by states for youngsters to enter and keep in public faculty. New York, as an example, requires youngsters to take ten vaccines all through their faculty years.

Gaslighting moms?

Trump supplied different nonsensical canards about vaccination. He claimed that Amish communities, a few of that are skeptical about vaccines, don’t expertise autism—an entire falsehood. He claimed the mixed measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was harmful—an unfounded assertion—and mentioned the pictures must be given individually. That’s a longtime aim of the antivaccination motion, however it will really put youngsters in danger, since fewer households have the time or sources to get all three vaccines individually. (It could additionally require extra doses in complete, which appears to fly within the face of Trump’s liquid issues!)

Although RFK Jr. had much less talking time throughout the announcement, he too made it some extent to convey up the debunked hyperlink between vaccines and autism. Throughout one notably astonishing second, he tried to border folks’s opposition to the antivaccination motion because the “gaslighting” of moms who imagine their youngsters’s autism was brought on by vaccines, even arguing that it went in opposition to the frequent chorus of “believing all girls”—a sentiment wholeheartedly endorsed by the White Home, which highlighted it on its social media accounts.

“Some 40-70% of moms who’ve youngsters with autism imagine that their little one was injured by a vaccine. President Trump believes that we must be listening to those moms as a substitute of gaslighting and marginalizing them like prior administrations.” – @SecKennedy pic.twitter.com/491tqIpgKy

— The White Home (@WhiteHouse) September 23, 2025

The antivax future

The HHS autism announcement launched yesterday solely accommodates a quick, however vital, reference to vaccines. It famous that the Nationwide Institutes of Well being has just lately launched the Autism Data Science Initiative, which is meant to fund analysis that may additional examine the drivers of autism, amongst different issues. The HHS announcement mentions that vaccinations might be one of many “medical and perinatal influences” that the initiative will look into, which RFK Jr. confirmed as effectively. HHS has additionally reportedly employed well-known antivaxxer David Geier to conduct a brand new examine reexamining the hyperlink between vaccines and autism.

Some members of the antivaccination motion expressed dismay that the much-touted HHS report largely targeted on acetaminophen, fearing that RFK Jr. and Trump would let vaccines off the hook. However given their feedback yesterday, it looks like they’re raring to maintain undermining vaccination too. The state of the nation’s public well being is dangerous now, however it may actually get even worse from right here on out.