A Shot in the Dark

Reporter: I think I heard you say the MMR vaccine is quite lethal. Is there any evidence of that?

Trump: No. I’ve heard some people say it is that way. I've heard when you put them together, they can be explosive.

For the record, medical science is not an “I’ve heard some people say…” kind of thing.

Addendum: When you're own answer to a medical science question, "Is there any evidence of that?", is "No," that should be the end of your answer.

Still, it would be good to hear (and “fun”, in a sardonic way) who those “some people” were who told that to Trump.  Who said that when you combine vaccines for mumps, measles and rubella, they can be “explosive.”  Because it almost certainly wasn’t anyone who has a medical degree.  Anywhere in the world.  Even if it came from an Internet medical school based in some South Seas island.

The best guess is that he heard it from some guy without any medical training who’s admitted to having been a heroin addict and has acknowledged snorting cocaine off a public toilet seat, like his ace Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Or perhaps it was from someone posting on Trump’s social media platform who's previously written in support of QAnon conspiracies that President Kennedy was going to be coming back to life and run on a ticket in 2024 with Trump.  Or, for all we know, “some people say” are those voices Trump hears in his dementia.

Though mainly I want to hear what Trump means by “explosive.”  Because with Trump, we can’t assume anything.  Being Trump, he may actually mean something that will literally explode. 

Just to be clear, the MMR vaccine was approved in 1971.  For those without an abacus handy, that’s 55 years ago.  The number of explosions from the vaccine during that past half-century is less than one.

And I don’t care what anyone says, “What Trump meant by ‘explosive’ is…” because whatever he meant was incredibly stupid.  Which is the polite term for crazy.

Trump raising concerns at his Oval Office event about vaccines and autism is not only pure RKjr, but also wrong and unsupportable, but dangerous, since it will get “some people” concerned about getting vaccinated.  And Trump cutting back on requiring all the previously required childhood vaccines is equally wrong, unsupportable and dangerous, risking the death of children.

But his edict about separating the MMR vaccine into three individual vaccines is not just wrong, unsupportable and dangerous – but ignorant.

I was talking with a physician friend yesterday about Trump’s edicts on vaccines.  He, of course, was galled by it, but it was his comments about Trump wanting to separate the MMR vaccine that leaped out. 

He said, and I’m paraphrasing, but closely – “That is not an easy thing to do.  It will take several years.  You can’t just take three vaccines out of the MMR and have everything ready to go.  It required a long time to develop how to get the three vaccines into one vaccine, and have all the parts work together.  So, to separate the MMR into three individual vaccines is something that will take years – and each separate vaccine one would then have to be extensively tested, as well.”

So, it seems likely that this Trump medical fantasy will go nowhere – both, in part, because of how long it will take, but also because when the next administration comes in two years from now, they will overturn this Executive Order, which still won’t be in marketplace yet.  (I’m assuming it will be a Democratic Administration, who – for the cause of safety -- will make a very public reversal of this and all the Trump vaccine decision.  But even if a MAGOP gets elected, it’s likely – not being as accepting as Trump over killing children – that they too will reverse the decision, but quietly.)

I should add that what also especially galled the physician was Trump trying to scare people into thinking that vaccines caused autism.  And he said something pointed: “Even if it was true, that there was a remote possibility that you could get autism from vaccines – which isn’t true – I would still tell people to get vaccines.  Because the damage from not getting vaccines is SO MUCH GREATER than the remote possibility of getting autism from vaccines.  Which you can’t.  But even if you could.  Even if there was a 1% chance of getting autism from vaccines, that pales to the 99% benefits from vaccines.” 

And that’s not what “some people say.”  It’s what medical science has long proven.