Science is never settled. Anyone who says that is not a scientist.
The medical community has provided no reasonable answer for the precipitous rise in autism and other conditions.
Research is good, even when there are negative results.
Via the AP:
President-elect Donald Trump is reviving long debunked attempts to link vaccines to autism, meeting with a vocal skeptic to discuss chairing a commission on vaccination safety – a move that alarmed child health experts.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday, and told reporters he had agreed to lead the effort, whatever form it takes.
“President-elect Trump has some doubts about the current vaccine policies and he has questions about it,” Kennedy said, adding that “we ought to be debating the science.”
To pediatricians, there’s nothing left to debate.
“Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are the most significant medical innovation of our time,” Drs. Fernando Stein and Karen Remley of the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement Tuesday.
Scientists have ruled out a link between vaccines and autism. But Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. attorney general and senator, has long argued that vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal may cause autism, and has advocated for parents to more easily opt out of childhood vaccinations.
Trump also has voiced vaccine skepticism, on Twitter and during one of the primary debates when he said that autism has gotten “totally out of control.” In that debate he went on to say, “I am totally in favor of vaccines, but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time.”