One of the most vocal anti-vaccine campaigners, Robert F Kennedy Jr, was approached by Donald Trump to chair a study on vaccine safety, reports BBC Health.
Sean Spicer, the next White House Press Secretary, said that the duo held a lengthy meeting with vaccines and immunizations as the main topic of discussion.
But Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, informed Reuters that no decision had been arrived at.
Mr Kennedy has been on the frontline in expressing fears that some vaccines may lead to autism, although his claims have been in most cases sidelined.
But the president-elect has also had his own doubts regarding vaccination. In the past he has made numerous tweets advocating that babies be issued with smaller doses split over a period of time.
While speaking at a 2015 Republican primary debate, Mr. Trump said that he completely supported vaccines.
However, he was of the opinion that small doses over a long period of time were more helpful than one huge dosage at ago. Same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump – I mean, it looks just like it’s meant for a horse, not for a child, and we’ve had so many instances, people that work for me. … [in which] a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back and a week later had a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic,” he said at the interview.
Medical experts have however denounced the possibility of vaccines being associated with autism. They say that these kinds of theories put the public health in danger.
Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study in which they found that autism and vaccines could not be linked in any way. Their conclusion was arrived at after having gone through numerous studies.
After finalizing his meeting Mr Trump, Mr Kennedy spoke to reporters saying that the commission will be involved in ensuring “scientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects.”
Source BBC
