President Donald Trump on Friday called on Americans to “get their shots” during the worst measles outbreak in over twenty years, Politico reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 695 measles cases have been reported in 2019, about twenty years after the disease was claimed to be eliminated. The CDC says that there is a link between the measles outbreaks in Washington state and New York and unvaccinated travelers who recently visited countries overseas that have had recent measles outbreaks.
“They have to get the shot,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “The vaccinations are so important. This is going around now. They have to get their shots.”
Trump met with anti-vaccine advocates several times during his campaign, including the author of the now-retracted 1998 article that linked the measles-mumps-rubella shot to autism, a theory that Trump has referenced in multiple tweets.
In 2012, he criticized “monstrous combined vaccines” and questioned “doctor-inflicted autism.” In 2014, he wrote: “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!”
Later that year, he tweeted: “I am being proven right about massive vaccinations—the doctors lied. Save our children & their future.”
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