Donald Trump says he believes vaccine inoculations may lead to autism.Â
In an interview with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt today, Donald Trump insisted there is a connection between autism and vaccine inoculations. While Trump said he is a believer that children should be vaccinated, he also believes the amount of fluid in some vaccines can lead to autism.
“I totally believe that you should be vaccinated,” Trump, who is likely moving toward becoming a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, told Hewitt. “But let them spread it out over a little period of time. You can’t pump that, because have you ever seen the size of these inoculations? You can’t pump that much fluid into a little baby’s body. And I think it’s having an effect.”
Trump, who toyed with running in 2012, went on to say that he knows people who have told him about the link.
“I know of at least two cases in my, but many people say the same thing happened to me where their child is totally healthy. They get pumped up with this huge pile of liquid, with many, many different vaccines, and their child turns out to be autistic after it. And all I’m saying is spread it out in smaller doses over a longer period of time.”
Asked specifically, “So you believe there’s a causal connection between vaccines and autism?,” Trump’s answer was less emphatic.
“Well, a lot of people do. I mean, there are many people that do. And I know at least two people, one of them who works in the building that I’m in right now, a beautiful woman, has a child. The child is 100% healthy, takes the child, who was I think around a year and a half or two years old to get the shot, gets this massive shot of fluid pumped into the baby’s body, and a few days later, catches a fever, and all of a sudden, is severely autistic. And many people, many people have had that experience, Hugh. And I will tell you, on Twitter and on Facebook, where you know, so many people, I feel, it’s sort of interesting, because I get so much response, people are praying for me that I at least say that.”
Hewitt pressed on, saying, “If a group of scientists came to you and said look, The Donald, that’s just, that’s not right, you’re giving out misinformation, would you change your mind if presented with facts on that?”
Trump did not back down.
“Well, I’ve seen babies that were totally healthy that weren’t healthy, and I’m not asking for anything. All I’m doing is saying spread it out over a period of time. I’m not saying don’t get inoculated, don’t get the shots, don’t get the vaccines. I’m saying spread it out over a period of time. It doesn’t hurt anybody other than probably the pharmaceutical companies, because they probably make more money putting it into one shot. Maybe it hurts the doctors. I don’t know. But I can say this. Everybody would get the vaccines. They just, they wouldn’t be pumping these massive amounts of liquid into a child.”
Listen:
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license