Allies of former President Donald Trump and people on his team, including his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have been spreading skepticism around vaccines in recent days as he makes his final push toward the election.
The co-chair of Trump’s transition team said on CNN Wednesday it would be “pretty cool to give ... [+]
Trump himself has not been vocal about vaccine skepticism recently—though he previously suggested they are “very dangerous” and can cause autism—but some people in his orbit have been promoting anti-vaccine claims that have been widely debunked.
Trump’s running mate, Vance, said on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which aired Thursday, he got “redpilled”—or had his belief changed—on the COVID-19 vaccine after it caused him to be “as sick as (he’d) ever been for two days,” but when he had COVID it felt like a sinus infection.
Vance also said he knows people who have been “vaccine-injured,” including a Senate colleague “who doesn’t want to talk about it but worries that it’s, like, permanently impacted his sort of sense of balance and dizziness.”
The co-chair of Trump’s transition team, Howard Lutnik, told CNN on Wednesday he recently spent time with former presidential candidate and anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has since endorsed Trump—and thinks it could be “pretty cool to give him the data” on vaccinations to determine whether they’re safe.
Lutnik also repeated conspiracy theories that have been disproven about vaccinations causing autism in children, including Kennedy’s claim that autism became more common as children have received more vaccines.
Lutnik’s comments also came shortly after Kennedy said Trump promised him “control” of health agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture if he’s reelected (Lutnik said Wednesday Kennedy is “not getting a job” in those departments).
Forbes has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.
After his comments drew criticism, Lutnik took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say he trusts doctors and has been vaccinated, but that because not everybody trusts the FDA it would “be doing everyone a service if the government respected Bobby Kennedy’s request to make the full data available.” Lutnick was not clear about what data Kennedy wanted or thought the government was not making public.
Trump hasn’t spoken specifically about his beliefs around vaccines while on the campaign trail recently, though KFF Health News reported he promised to cut funding to schools that have vaccine mandates at least 17 times this year (the Trump campaign told them that only applied to COVID-19 mandates). In a September interview with weekly news show “Full Measure,” Trump said he was proud of getting the COVID-19 vaccine developed so quickly but that he doesn’t like to talk about it because “the Republicans don't want to claim it.” In July, Trump was heard repeating conspiracies about child vaccination on a leaked call between him and Kennedy.
Harris’ campaign responded to Vance’s claim about being “redpilled” on vaccines after getting sick from his COVID-19 shot on X, quote-tweeting a clip of the interview with the caption: “Vance says he has been ‘redpilled’ about vaccines because he felt sick after he got a vaccine (This is how vaccines work).”
As of Thursday afternoon, FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average had Harris leading Trump by 1.3 points, but RealClearPolitics’ national polling average had Trump leading by 0.5 points.