Billionaire presidential contender Donald Trump made a “huge” splash on the GOP debate stage Wednesday in a sparring match with Dr. Ben Carson over whether vaccines cause autism.
“There have been numerous studies, and they have not demonstrated that there is any correlation between vaccinations and autism,” Dr. Carson claimed, responding to whether he believed Trump should cease assertions that vaccines cause autism.
“He can read about it if he wants to. I think he’s an intelligent man and will make the correct decision after getting the real facts.”
The hotel mogul, however, held firm, embracing his previous stance that, from first hand experience, vaccines are distributed at too high a frequency and too young an age, and may contribute to the rise in childhood autism.
“I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time,” Trump rebutted, adding that his own children received vaccines “over a two or three year period of time.”
Trump went on to describe a child he knew who grew sick soon after receiving a vaccine.
“[W]e’ve had so many instances, people that work for me. Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”
After maintaining there’s no “documented proof” that vaccines are responsible for autism, Dr. Carson conceded that “it is true that we are probably giving way too many in too short a period of time.”
Trump’s controversial response echoes one he gave on Fox News in April 2012, in which he also related the story of a child of one of his employees who was damaged after receiving vaccines.
“I’ve gotten to be pretty familiar with the subject,” Trump told Fox News’ Fox & Friends. “You know, I have a theory — and it’s a theory that some people believe in — and that’s the vaccinations. We never had anything like this.
“This is now an epidemic. It’s way, way up over the past 10 years. It’s way up over the past two years. And, you know, when you take a little baby that weighs like 12 pounds into a doctor’s office and they pump them with many, many simultaneous vaccinations — I’m all for vaccinations, but I think when you add all of these vaccinations together and then two months later the baby is so different then lots of different things have happened. I really — I’ve known cases.”
The vaccine autism link recently came under federal scrutiny when Florida US Congressman Bill Posey noted before a House committee the testimony of Center for Disease Control whistleblower Bill Thompson, who claimed the agency colluded with researchers to destroy documents linking the injection to thousands of autism cases.
Video: Trump’s response starts at 1:08.
