In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.
Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim Monday at vaccine makers' federal liability protections.
The big picture: Kennedy, who has repeatedly pushed the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism and in the past was involved in litigation over patient injury claims, has argued in the past that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) takes away manufacturers' incentive to make vaccines safe.
Zoom in: Kennedy is proposing an overhaul to the VICP, which was established by law in 1986 in response to the threat of vaccine lawsuits leading to shortages.
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Between the lines: Weakening or removing liability protections for certain vaccines could be the thing that makes manufacturers contemplate leaving the market, experts say — or at least causes them to significantly raise prices, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.
Mr. Kennedy could use the effort as a platform to further erode trust in vaccines, said Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied the program.
“It’s setting them up for changes that will make the program compensate cases out of hand without actually evaluating the cases, including cases that are almost certainly false,” she said.
Mr. Kennedy and his close allies have pressed cases in the compensation court and in other courts for years, including a trial in 2022 in which Mr. Kennedy gave a closing argument. The case sought to hold a doctor liable for causing autism by vaccinating a boy. The jury sided with the doctor.
