On the otherwise tumultuous day of Donald Trump's presidential victory, many members of the anti-vaccination movement let out a sigh of relief. One of their own, they seemed to believe, was headed to the White House.
Anti-vaccinationists say a lot of things that aren't true, but this particular claim happened to be based in reality. In public statements going back more than a decade, Trump has alleged a connection — for which no evidence exists — between childhood vaccines and the onset of autism.
"When I was growing up, autism wasn't really a factor," Trump told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2007. "And now all of a sudden, it's an epidemic … My theory is the shots. We're giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children." He has repeated this theory on Twitter, television, and debate stages.
Trump's conspiratorial thinking almost worked its way into the policy pipeline. Before he was even inaugurated, he reportedly invited a prominent vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to chair a new commission on vaccines. That commission ultimately never materialized, and Trump has largely — but not entirely — avoided the topic since becoming president. Still, his administration has presided over an alarming string of measles and mumps outbreaks spurred, experts say, by low vaccination rates in some communities.
Trump's views may seem clear, but the genesis of his position is not. How did the president of the United States come to the false and dangerous belief that vaccines cause autism? Where and when did he first encounter this belief, and why did he adopt it? How did Trump become an anti-vaccinationist?
Read more: How Donald Trump became an anti-vaxxer - Insider
Anti-vaccinationists say a lot of things that aren't true, but this particular claim happened to be based in reality. In public statements going back more than a decade, Trump has alleged a connection — for which no evidence exists — between childhood vaccines and the onset of autism.
"When I was growing up, autism wasn't really a factor," Trump told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2007. "And now all of a sudden, it's an epidemic … My theory is the shots. We're giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children." He has repeated this theory on Twitter, television, and debate stages.
Trump's conspiratorial thinking almost worked its way into the policy pipeline. Before he was even inaugurated, he reportedly invited a prominent vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to chair a new commission on vaccines. That commission ultimately never materialized, and Trump has largely — but not entirely — avoided the topic since becoming president. Still, his administration has presided over an alarming string of measles and mumps outbreaks spurred, experts say, by low vaccination rates in some communities.
Trump's views may seem clear, but the genesis of his position is not. How did the president of the United States come to the false and dangerous belief that vaccines cause autism? Where and when did he first encounter this belief, and why did he adopt it? How did Trump become an anti-vaccinationist?
Read more: How Donald Trump became an anti-vaxxer - Insider
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