Debate on Vaccines and Autism Link

Did you say probing the link?

That what what the wall

I'm just quoting the Wall Street Journal

that they that the president wants you to go further to probe the link

between autism and vaccines. He certainly does.

Okay now have you talked to him

about medical research that have studied this for 25 years and found no link between autism and vaccines

and and and just that this is my question here

because I don't want to litigate that my question is why not because you are HHS secretary now

why not study what could cause autism which scientists do believe starts with fetal brain development

why not do some studies on that whether there's an environmental lawyer whether their environmental factors that go into contributing to a predisposed genetic situation

let me say this first we're doing all those things

and that's one of the ways that we found Tylenol

there's 73 studies out there and link Tylenol exposure during later pregnancy and during the perinatal period to to autism onset

but you are wrong when you say that this issue has been studied it has been studied

and you're rolling your eyes I am I

don't want I don't want to have you use our air to say this

there have been more than 40 studies involving 5.6 million people to conclude there is no link between vaccines and autism

this is the head of the Committee of infectious diseases for the American Academy of let

me tell you what the Institute of Medicine says which is the National Academy of Sciences

which is the ultimate arbiter on vaccine safety in which it does not have an interest in this debate

it says that none of the eight vaccines that are administered during the first six months of life have ever been studied for a relationship to autism.

It found two studies, one on the DTP vaccine,

it showed that it does cause autism, and one on the Hepatitis B vaccine,

and again, suggests that it does cause autism.

The Institute of Medicine dismissed those two studies because they were based on CDC's database.

The studies that you're referring to are all from one vaccine, the MMR vaccine, or one ingredient,

thimerosal. So you are using, you are actually looking at, you're starting new studies

to try to link autism, but you're also telling me- I'm not trying to link autism to anything.

I'm trying to find out why has autism gone from less than one, why has autism gone-

Are you also trying to find out how it interacts with people's DNA, what's predisposed to have an autistic child? Are you doing both?

Yeah, but Dana, you probably don't understand this because you're not a scientist,

but genes don't cause- Well, you're not either.

Genes don't cause epidemics. I understand, genes epidemics- They can provide a vulnerability.

A gene provides an environmental exposure. That's what I'm asking, are you studying the environmental I'm

looking at all the different environmental exposures, but your statement,

you have been fooled.

Your statement that this has been studied is not true. It's categorically not true, not for any of this.

It is considered, decided-

Considered by who? By every scientist who has studied this.

That is not true. It is true.

I can give you hundreds of scientists who have looked at this and say, why is it? So

on the one hand, you are, do you understand why people aren't getting-

It's the National Academy of Sciences.

What greater authority do you have than-

Do you understand why people are not getting measles vaccines, because they're hearing you say that it could cause autism.

You're trying to change a subject.

I'm not, it's very much related.

Yeah, you are, show me one of the studies that's been done on the first eight,

the vaccines during the first six months of life, you will not find them.

The National Academy of Sciences-

So if that's the case, then why are you telling people to get the measles vaccine?

Because that is one of the vaccines that has been studied.

It's the only one that has been studied.

Do you want people to get the MMR vaccine?

Yeah, I said that already.

I know you're flustered now, and it is frustrating because people have not been honest with you.

The reason I'm frustrated is because you are the HHS secretary,

and you are talking about things that lead to vaccine hesitancy in this country,

and it is something that causes problems for people.

Let me ask you something.

Do you see your job as ending vaccine hesitancy,

or do you see your job as telling the truth to the American people?

I see my job as telling the truth,

and the truth is that there is study after study after study.

It's one of the most studied things out there in science.

You're repeating it like a parrot.

You're repeating it like a parrot.

I've actually read the science.

Let's come back here and debate the science.

I'm not debating this.

Of course you are.

No, because I'm not debating this.

All you know how to do is repeat things that people told you, and say, trust the experts.

That's what you did during COVID.

Now we know that Andy Fauci, who was the expert, was lying about everything,

about masks, about social distancing, about natural immunity, about the transmission from the vaccine, about the source of COVID.

He was lying, and you were punishing people for not trusting the experts,

and now you're rolling out the experts again to talk about something that you have no personal knowledge of.

Okay. Well, guess what?

That is my job, to talk to people.

Your job is to tell the truth to the American public.

Am I allowed to talk? Yes. Yes.

My job is to get as much information as I can.

And what we were doing in COVID,

and still,

with regard to these vaccines, is getting the best information, the best science that we can.