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 responsible acetaminophen (identified by the model title Tylenol) for inflicting autism—an assertion that many experts reject. However each males additionally took a while to level the finger at one among their favourite scapegoats: vaccines.

All through yesterday’s information convention asserting the HHS’ obvious findings on autism, ostensibly centered on acetaminophen and folate deficiency, Trump and Kennedy repeatedly circled again to the subject of vaccination. The 2 tossed out acquainted and repeatedly 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 could have been, are a robust sign that RFK Jr. and his allies are nonetheless planning to formally blame vaccines for inflicting autism.

Veering off target

The HHS announcement on autism launched yesterday, not a lot a report as it’s a purported fact sheet, principally involved the medication acetaminophen and leucovorin, the latter being a medicine used to deal with sure sorts of folate deficiency. Exterior scientists have already torn aside the findings, arguing they’re primarily based, at finest, on weak and blended proof. However that didn’t cease Trump and RFK Jr. from loudly proclaiming through 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 definitely emphasised the first findings, greater than as soon as yelling at pregnant ladies to not take Tylenol and to as an alternative powerful 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 diminished entry to acetaminophen.

All that stated, it didn’t take too lengthy for Trump to begin ranting about vaccines.

‘An excessive amount of liquid’

In in all probability probably the most memeable moment, Trump known 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 components without delay—together with, it appears, the water used to include 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 huge a quantity, the dimensions of this factor, once you take a look at it, it’s like 80 completely different vaccines,” Trump stated.

The “an excessive amount of liquid” half appears to be a singular Trumpism, but it surely’s definitely true that many antivaxxers fearmonger concerning the variety of vaccines youngsters are mandated to obtain, usually by extremely exaggerating the determine as Trump did. Nowhere on the earth 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 mathematics 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. Individuals, children and adults alike, are additionally usually beneficial to get a seasonal flu shot (and till 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 college. New York, for example, requires youngsters to take ten vaccines all through their college 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—a whole falsehood. He claimed the mixed measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was harmful—an unfounded assertion—and stated the pictures ought to be given individually. That’s a longtime aim of the antivaccination motion, however it will truly put youngsters in danger, since fewer households have the time or sources to get all three vaccines individually. (It will additionally require extra doses in whole, which appears to fly within the face of Trump’s liquid issues!)

Although RFK Jr. had much less talking time through the announcement, he too made it some extent to carry up the debunked hyperlink between vaccines and autism. Throughout one significantly 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 attributable to vaccines, even arguing that it went in opposition to the widespread chorus of “believing all ladies”—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 youngster was injured by a vaccine. President Trump believes that we ought to be listening to those moms as an alternative 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 comprises a quick, however necessary, reference to vaccines. It famous that the Nationwide Institutes of Well being has 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 will likely be one of many “medical and perinatal influences” that the initiative will look into, which RFK Jr. confirmed as nicely. 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 principally centered 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 unhealthy now, but it surely may definitely get even worse from right here on out.