Donald Trump says he thinks it’s time for the nation to have a “big discussion” about eliminating childhood vaccines that protect American youth from diseases such as measles, mumps, and polio.
Polio, it should be noted, killed or paralyzed over 500,000 people a year in the United States before a vaccine was formulated in 1953 by American virologist Jonas Salk.
However, Nicholas Liu of Salon notes that Trump sounds ready to adopt the radical policies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his controversial nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Asked if he would approve of any decision by Kennedy to end vaccination programs — insofar as he has that power, which is largely delegated to the states — Trump cited autism as a reason why he might. “We’re going to have a big discussion,” he said. “The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it.”
His administration would get rid of some vaccinations if “I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial,” Trump added.
Both Kennedy and Trump have repeatedly suggested that a link exists between childhood vaccinations and autism even though one has never been proven.
Kennedy has made this same fatal mistake before.
In Samoa, Kennedy spread misinformation about vaccines, resulting in a steep decline in vaccination rates.
After measles vaccination rates plummeted, 57,000 Samoans contracted the disease and 83 died. Most of the fatalities were children.
Former Trump FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb recently warned that if Kennedy follows through on his promise to end vaccine mandates, “it will cost lives in this country.”
Then again, maybe that’s the darker plan of both Kennedy and Trump: To let hundreds of thousands of American children die so the state won’t have to pay to feed and educate them. That money can then be given to Trump’s billionaire buddies (i.e. Elon Musk) via tax cuts that benefit only the top 1%.
It’s hard to believe anyone can be as utterly stupid as Trump and RFK Jr. Both of them belong on a one-way boat cruise to a deserted island. That would go a long way to making America great again.