President Donald Trump praised ”amazing” vaccines that work during an Oval Office order signing session on Friday amid increased calls from Democrats for health secretary and notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s removal.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump was asked about Florida’s recent decision to repeal state laws mandating childhood vaccinations for diseases like measles, mumps and chicken pox.
“I think we have to be very careful,” Trump replied. “You have some vaccines that are very amazing—the polio vaccine, I happen to think is amazing; a lot of people think COVID is amazing. But you have some vaccines that are so incredible, and I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated. It’s a very tough position.”
“You have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They’re not controversial at all, and I think those vaccines should be used. Otherwise some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people… I think people should take it.”
Florida became the first state in the U.S. to roll back vaccine requirements for children, with the state’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo likening the laws to slavery. Ladapo was accused of altering the results of a study on COVID vaccines in order to make them seem more dangerous to young men in 2023.
The president’s comments on vaccines seemingly put him at odds with his own health secretary, who has long promoted debunked theories about the existence of a link between vaccines and autism.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy was planning to release a report claiming that Tylenol usage during pregnancy can cause autism.
Since his appointment to Trump’s cabinet, Kennedy has sought to install several of his fellow vaccine skeptics in senior roles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the country’s leading vaccine panel.
Kennedy faced down critical senators from both parties during his hearing on Thursday, including every single Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, all of whom called for his resignation moments before the hearing began.
Republicans also raised concerns about Kennedy’s promotion of anti-vaccine views, including Senator Bill Cassidy, who questioned Kennedy over Operation Warp Speed—Trump’s program to accelerate the development of a COVID-19 vaccine—and concerns that the Health and Human Services department under Kennedy was restricting the public’s access to vaccines.
Asked about Kennedy’s performance in front of the committee on Thursday, Trump appeared to struggle to say anything definitive, telling reporters he hadn’t had a chance to watch the hearings, but that Kennedy was “a very good person” who had a “different take.”
“I guarantee a lot of the people at this table like RFK Jr. And I do. But he’s got a different take. And we want to listen to all of those takes. But I heard he did very well today.”
“It’s not your standard talk,” Trump admitted of Kennedy’s rhetoric. “I would say that. And that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health and look at this country, also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”
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