WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine could be “quite lethal” as he urged the three inoculations to be administered separately to reduce what he said could be an elevated risk of autism.
Trump made the recommendation while signing an executive order in the Oval Office alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to affirm the court-paused CDC recommendation of 11 childhood vaccines, down from 17.
“Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases, along with the MMR, which hopefully will be split up,” Trump said.
“The MMR we wanted in three separate vaccinations, given at separate times. Together there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal, and separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal, but just very effective. So the MMR we want to have separate visits, separate times.”
Trump described the vaccination as “the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body, and bad things happen in many too many cases.”
“Parents can still choose to give their children all of the vaccinations if they wish,” the president said. “There are some groups that have virtually no problem with autism, and they, you know, I have to say this: they’re groups that aren’t big into the world of vaccines.”
Trump softened his tone on the MMR vaccination when a reporter asked if he was aware of evidence that it could harm children — a claim health regulators have long denied.
“No. What I’ve heard is that there are some people that say it is that way, and I say, ‘Well, let’s say there’s a 5% chance of it. Let’s split it up,’” Trump replied.
“But I’ve heard when you put them together, they can’t be explosive.”
Trump told a different reporter that he split up vaccinations for his own children, who were born between 1977 and 2006.
“I did. I took my children to five different vaccinations. In other words, I broke it up,” Trump said. “It’s inconvenient. It’s five stops, but it’s something that I think will have a huge impact on autism.”
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine safety skeptic, did not offer a specific assessment of whether childhood shots cause autism when he spoke at the event.
“We’re only noticing it in kids who were born around 1989 or after. The older generations are not seeing those increases. So something happened in the mid ‘90s that changed our children, and it has to be an environmental exposure,” Kennedy said. “You need an environmental toxin.”
