Trump's Vaccine Order: Autism Isn't Damage
I'm autistic. President Trump signed an executive order August 10 claiming vaccines cause autism and calling for an 11-shot childhood schedule instead of the current CDC recommendations. There is no vaccine-autism link. Medical consensus on this is overwhelming – the research has been done, repeatedly, and the claim has been debunked. Medical experts and disability advocates condemned the order immediately. Trump said during the signing: "In those times, people were much healthier and of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So, there's a reason for such epidemic rates of autism." That's not science. It's not even close. And it's dangerous on two fronts: it puts children at risk by discouraging immunizations proven to prevent serious illness, and it perpetuates the fiction that autism is damage – something caused by an external agent, something that needs a villain. I wasn't damaged. I'm autistic because that's how my bra...