The "ludicrous" rantings of President Donald Trump's officials about vaccines in the Oval Office on Monday stunned a panel on CNN.
Trump held a bill-signing ceremony for an executive order that revised the pediatric vaccine schedule to 11 vaccines from 18. During the ceremony, Trump described the bill as a “major victory for parents' rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also amplified the conspiracy theory that vaccines are linked to autism during the event by announcing his agency would release findings on alleged connections "as soon as they are ready." Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, called it a "medical travesty" for children to be "pumped full of vaccines."
Experts say there is no credible evidence that vaccines cause autism.
The comments stunned the panel on CNN's "OutFront" with Erin Burnett.
"I think it's very reckless and dangerous that we have politicians, people who don't have an M.D. behind their name or a PhD, making recommendations on these vaccine schedules," Charlie Dent, a former Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, told Burnett. "I think it's outrageous."
David Axelrod, a former senior advisor for President Barack Obama, added that the president's comments could have a disastrous impact on childhood vaccination rates.
"It's really, really dangerous," Axelrod said. "And, listening to him, I'm having flashbacks of those press conferences we used to see during the COVID pandemic when he would hypothesize about hydroxychloroquine and bleach and other remedies as if he had some standing to make these judgments. And people actually went out and did it. So this is very dangerous."
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