Donald Trump’s claims on MMR vaccines are ‘nonsense’ and could put children’s lives at risk, UK experts warn
UK experts have slapped down Donald Trump’s unfounded remarks over measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines, warning the US president’s claims are “nonsense” and could risk children’s lives.
In a string of statements on autism, widely deemed as unfounded by experts, Mr Trump claimed children should be given the long-used MMR jab – which combines measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines – separately.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, he said: “It seems to be that when you mix them, there could be a problem. It’s practically a known fact that if you break it up, you’re not going to have a problem.” He did not cite any scientific basis for the claim, adding: “This is based on what I feel.”
He made the remarks as he claimed that pregnant women should not take paracetamol because it can be linked to autism – claims that have been roundly rebuked by health officials and Wes Streeting, the health secretary.
Experts have now hit out at the president’s comments on MMR amid growing concern over a decline in uptake of the vaccine. A child died with measles in Liverpool this year.
Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the UK government’s joint committee on vaccinations and immunisations, said the US president’s attempts to link autism and MMR vaccines are “nonsense” and that Mr Trump was “sowing a lot of confusion” about the MMR jab.
He said: “Apart from anything else, there’s no available separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines; nobody manufactures them because nobody wants to give them that way – so it’s not even feasible.
“And the implication of the comments that combined MMR is something to do with autism, there is no evidence whatsoever that they have anything to do with autism, in fact, there’s lots of evidence that they don’t cause autism.”
“It’s nonsense, it’s just complete nonsense. There’s nothing wrong with giving MMR together. They work fine, they don’t work any less well, and there’s absolutely no evidence they cause autism.”
Professor Finn added that, in the US, politicians’ focus on autism is a sign they are failing to understand the condition.
He said: “Autism is complex. As with many poorly understood conditions, the parents or people affected by it are desperate for a solution, and that’s been picked up by the politicians – and the politicians who are not scientists latch on to the idea there is a cause and they latch on to that idea that they can somehow solve the problem.
“They’re really not understanding the complexity of the condition and the factors involved, and they keep picking something. First, it was MMR, which was disproved, then it was mercury, which was disproved.”
Dr Mary Ramsay, director of immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, also told The Independent: “Claims suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have long been thoroughly discredited. The evidence is clear – there is no link between the vaccine and autism. Resurfacing these links now is putting children’s lives at risk.”
Previous claims made by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 linking autism and MMR have since been repeatedly disproved by experts and researchers.
Just six years ago, Mr Trump said people should “get their shots” as America faced a measles outbreak in 2019.
The NHS says children should have three doses of the MMR vaccine, the first when they reach the age of one.
The US state department was approached for comment.
