In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. In this campaign, a number of posts discussed Trump's support for the idea.
. ..Four years ago at a “Statesman of the Year” dinner in Florida, where you received a bust of Ronald Reagan, Gary Kompothecras, a multi-millionaire chiropractor in the Sarasota area — and the owner of the building that housed your campaign headquarters — made the case to you and your wife, Melania, that the current vaccine schedule was responsible for the dramatic rise in autism.
After that meeting, you Tweeted
Kompothecras, as the father of two young adults with autism, has waged a public war on mandatory vaccination laws and public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He believes that vaccines were responsible for his children’s dramatic loss of skills in the second year of life, a phenomenon known as autistic regression.
As recounted by Kent Heckenlively in his new book, Inoculated, you attended a private meeting on August 11, 2016 in Kissimmee, Florida, arranged by Kompothecras. There you were introduced to Andrew Wakefield, the former British gastroenterologist who pushed the notion that vaccines cause autism from the realm of fringe conspiracy theory into the mainstream.
