He said he gave Trump a copy of his 2015 anti-vaccine documentary, Vaxxed, which the president-elect promised to watch.
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Trump met with Kennedy on Tuesday in NY. “The president-elect looks forward to continuing the discussion about all aspects of autism with many groups and individuals”.
Kennedy wrote an article on the subject in 2005 for the Rolling Stone magazine, in which he argued that the government is covering up the connections between autism and thimerosal, a preservative that used to be an ingredient in vaccines. Numerous studied have also backed up those statements.
One of the main elements of the controversy is thimerosal, a substance based in mercury that helps avoid contamination from multiple vials containing the vaccine.
“Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, said at the second GOP presidential debate on CNN that there is ‘no autism associated with vaccinations”.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement in response at the time, calling Trump’s claims “disproven” and “dangerous to public health”. Kennedy also expanded on this in a 2014 book called Thimerosol: Let the Science Speak.
“The autism holocaust has permanently consumed 1 million children in this country”, he allegedly said.
Kennedy has repeatedly questioned the safety of vaccines and advanced arguments that there is a link between the immunizations and autism. It conclusion was clear: “Vaccines do not cause autism” is the title of a web page summing up that research. Yes, the science does matter, and perhaps once Kennedy is exposed to it, he might change his mind about the enormous benefits of vaccination versus the minor risks. He adds, “vaccines have already been thoroughly evaluated for safety”. This is alarming for a variety of reasons, and the greater medical community agrees. “The science is extremely solid on this”, she said. “And we ought to be reading the science, and we ought to be debating the science”. At 62, Kennedy is, like Trump, old enough to remember polio, and a host of other diseases that have been cured, safely, by vaccines. “It is unsafe to public health to suggest otherwise”. He said denying vaccines could lead to “increased harm, illness and potentially death” from diseases that would easily be prevented by a shot. In that testimony, he said he was pro-vaccine and had vaccinated all his children. “I fully support vaccinations, and my concern was meant to be positive around the safety of them”. “That is endorsement enough, hopefully”.
Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, thimerosal has been removed or reduced to trace amounts in all childhood vaccines except for some flu vaccines, the CDC has said, describing the move as a “precaution”.
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If you thought vaccines were just a campaign issue, think again.
