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Trump Backs Kennedy's Vaccine-Autism Claims, Experts Disagree

8/29/2025

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Summary

Story summary

President Trump supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claims connecting vaccines to autism rates during a cabinet meeting.
Trump reacted to Kennedy's statement that one in 12 boys is diagnosed with autism, a rise from one in 10,000 in 1971.
Experts attribute the increase in diagnoses to improved screening methods, not vaccines, and reject the vaccine-autism link as unscientific.

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Story summary

President Trump supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claims connecting vaccines to autism rates during a cabinet meeting.
Trump reacted to Kennedy's statement that one in 12 boys is diagnosed with autism, a rise from one in 10,000 in 1971.
Experts attribute the increase in diagnoses to improved screening methods, not vaccines, and reject the vaccine-autism link as unscientific.