As the midterm elections approach and Donald Trump shifts his attention from the issues voters care about most to his own personal preoccupations, the president began last week with a baseless broadside designed to upend the childhood vaccine schedule. The accompanying White House event was a misinformation extravaganza.
The president claimed, for example, that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines can possibly be “quite lethal” when combined into a single shot. That was so bonkers that a reporter asked if he had any evidence whatsoever to back that up. “No,” he replied. “What I’ve heard is that there are there are some people that say it is that way.”
The president did not elaborate as to where exactly he had heard this or who was included among “some people.” Nevertheless, a day later, he kept going, appearing on conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root’s program and arguing, “MMR, if you give them separately, the M, the M and the R, it’s fine. When you put them together, they’re sort of like a nuclear weapon, according to some.”
Putting aside the obvious question of who’s included among these unidentified “some,” and why the incumbent president takes their absurd claims seriously, it’s also important to emphasize how utterly bonkers Trump’s claim is. The MMR vaccine has been around for decades, it’s safe and effective, and it has saved millions of lives. Comparing it to “a nuclear weapon” is dangerously insane.
Indeed, even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own website currently tells the public, “MMR vaccination is the best way to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella. The MMR vaccine is very safe. Vaccines, like any medicine, can have side effects. These are usually mild and go away on their own. There is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Scientists in the United States and other countries have carefully studied the MMR vaccine. None have found a link between autism and the MMR vaccine.”
The CDC similarly explained that there’s no benefit to separating the MMR vaccine into three individual shots.
With this in mind, CNN’s Elex Michaelson sat down with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and asked who’s right, the president or the CDC.
“Well, I think the CDC website probably is outdated,” RFK Jr. replied. The notorious anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and misinformation enthusiast, as part of the same interview, went on to suggest that there might be a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. That isn’t just at odds with reality, it’s also at odds with the findings of the CDC, which Kennedy oversees.
As for whether the CDC’s online resource is outdated, the website was last updated in late April, when it was revised with a statement that read, “The information on this page was last reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy.”
I don’t know when or whether Trump or Kennedy will have any success in breaking up the MMR vaccine, though The New York Times reported last week:
Researchers have not linked the combination MMR shot to a risk of death, and there is no evidence that it is dangerous or that splitting it into its three components is any safer or more effective, vaccine experts said. Combination shots for the diseases have been used in the United States since 1971, and were introduced only after careful comparison against individual shots. They have been given to hundreds of millions of children.
What’s more, separate vaccines for measles, mumps or rubella have not been available in the United States for many years. Vaccine manufacturers said it would take a minimum of five to 10 years for them to be tested and made available.
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