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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Republican Party has made an antivaccine loon named Donald Trump its presumptive nominee
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/05/03/the-republican-party-is-on-the-verge-of-nominating-an-antivaccine-loon-named-donald-trump/"I havent written anything about Donald Trump and vaccines in a while. When last I did write about him, I enumerated his long, sordid history of making ridiculously pseudoscientific antivaccine statements linking vaccines to autism dating back at least to 2007. That was when I first discovered him and referred to him as the latest celebrity antivaccinationist drinking the Kool Aid of vaccine pseudoscience. A few years later, I noted his risibly nonsensical claim that a monster shot causes autism. Truly, Donald Trumps history of making idiotic antivaccine statements is long and sordid. Of course, Donald Trumps history of making idiotic statements about a great many subjects is long and sordid, but antivaccine pseudoscience is what I know better than domestic or foreign policy.
Of course, I dont recall having heard anything from Trump in a while on the vaccine-autism front, at least not since September last year. But his antivaccine lunacy is definitely part of his persona, so much so that when I started to type Donald Trump vaccines autism the first entry on the search was a Natural News link from 2012. In any case, I get the feeling that Trumps antivaccine views were too crazy even for most of Trumps supporters, hence his relative silence these last eight months. Sure, he can spout off about how he wants to build a wall on the Mexican border and have Mexico pay for it and numerous other proposals even more ludicrous than that, but hes apparently toned down the antivaccine nonsense. Now, with the Indiana primary today, Trump is on the verge of all but wrapping up the Republican nomination if he wins there today. Thats why I decided to revisit the topic today, particularly given that the issue has reared its ugly head again.
Still, if Trump were actually to become President, he could do great damage to public health. Sure, school vaccine mandates are a state issue, but the guidelines upon which they are based are developed by the CDC. Over the last couple of decades, there have been various antivaccine legislators who have brought CDC officials before Congressional committees to demand answers about the link between vaccines and autism. Just imagine how much trouble a President Trump could cause, with his power to appoint a Secretary of HHS. I was reminded of this again by a video in a story that popped up in my feed yesterday featuring Elizabeth Emken.
The reason this is relevant is that Emken used to be the Executive Director of Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy group that used to be very much into antivaccine pseudoscience. Indeed, after much foot dragging, it wasnt until 2015 that Autism Speaks finally grudgingly admitted that there is no good evidence linking vaccines to autism after a large study was published showing no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism and a meta-analysis involving over a million children similarly failed to find a link. Its not for nothing that Autism Speaks has been quite appropriately accused of speaking up too late on vaccines.
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In case anyone had forgotten this part of Trump's despicable persona.
Jackie Wilson Said
(4,176 posts)very angry whenever criticized
Now imagine him having access to the worlds biggest military and nuclear weapons.
This is the Drumpf nightmare.
(dont know who that is in the pic, I was trying to point out that if someone that size acted like a 10 yr old, it would be troubling)
Bucky
(54,104 posts)Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Ugh.
spanone
(135,958 posts)wouldn't want to short change the don
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Are any republicans pro-science?
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)auntpurl
(4,311 posts)HuckleB
(35,773 posts)auntpurl
(4,311 posts)and still vote for non-regulation of polluting industries.
YouDig
(2,280 posts)Ted Cruz's dad helped assassinate JFK, and god knows what else...
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)progressoid
(50,028 posts)Kicking your post!
Note to self, for more exposure don't post an OP at 1:00 in the morning!
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)wheniwasincongress
(1,307 posts)a reality TV star
The "and's" could go on forever!
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)The GOP has been on a downward spiral for decades, but WOW!
Codeine
(25,586 posts)Half of DU will vote for him just because the vaccine shit.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Still, science does not appear to be Trump's forte. Well, nothing does, really, other than being a racist ham.