Trump criticises injections ahead of autism announcement – but there’s one problem | indy100

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US president Donald Trump is gearing up to make an announcement on autism on Monday, after using events over the weekend - including the funeral of his friend Charlie Kirk - to tease the event.

And while speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, the Republican issued remarks on vaccines which have ended up backfiring on social media.

He said: “Vaccines are very interesting. They can be great, but when you put the wrong stuff in them … children get these massive vaccines that you’d give to a horse.

"And I’ve said for a long time, I mean, this is no secret – spread them out over five years. Get five shots, small ones. Did you ever see what they give? I mean, for a little baby to be injected with that much fluid, even beyond the actual ingredients, they have sometimes 80 different vaccines in them. It’s crazy.”

Twitter/X users were quick to both fact-check Trump and remind him of what happened in 2020, when he famously suggested people inject themselves with disinfectant to beat coronavirus.

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“Would you consider ‘bleach’ as ‘the wrong stuff’,” asked one account:

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Numerous studies have debunked the claim that autism is caused by vaccines, an assertion made popular by the disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield in the late 1990s.

Although the news conference hyped up by Trump is yet to take place at the time of writing, many outlets report his administration is expected to blame Tylenol (a brand name for acetaminophen or paracetamol) in pregnancy for rising autism rates.

Experts state that autism’s increased prevalence is due to better recognition of the condition, and a study from Swedish researchers last year concluded that “acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analyses”.

All of this comes after health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr - who told Fox News in 2023 that he does “believe that autism does come from vaccines” - promised earlier this year that they would find out the cause of autism “by September”.

Trump is expected to make an announcement on his administration’s work to find the causes of autism at 4pm ET (9pm UK time).

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