On Tuesday, January 10, President-elect Donald Trump met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr at Trump Tower. The son of the late senator and presidential candidate is a known critic and skeptic of the safety and efficacy of vaccinations. According to multiple news outlets, RFK Jr. has announced that President-elect Trump has asked him to chair a commission on vaccination safety. Trump's administration has announced that they have made no final decisions on creating a commission to investigate vaccine safety and a "possible link to autism."

Both men are well-known skeptics, and although Kennedy claimed that both he and Trump are "very pro-vaccine," neither has made explicit statements confirming so. In fact, while running for president, Donald Trump has engaged in some very anti-vaccine rhetoric. In 2014, Trump tweeted : "Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!" At a 2015 debate, he shared a story about an unidentified child who was vaccinated, became very sick, and is now autistic. In 2014, Kennedy wrote a book about the mercury content in vaccines and has also lobbied Congress for exceptions from state-required vaccinations. Both men are proponents for a more spaced out vaccination schedule for children.

What does this mean for future legislation?

Despite incendiary remarks made by the President-elect reinforcing fears that vaccinations cause autism and other illness in children, science has overwhelmingly proven otherwise. Various studies done by medical journals across the country have proven that there is no link between child vaccinations and autism. It is estimated that vaccinations prevent over 6 million deaths across the world each year. This fear of autism fuels this anti-vaccination movement which can result in outbreaks of preventable disease like the measles outbreak at Disneyland in late 2014/Early 2015. According to the CDC, the initial case was an unvaccinated child and a majority of those affected were confirmed to be un-vaccinated and many others had undocumented/unknown vaccination records.

A federal movement to investigate autism's connection to vaccinations could undermine the scientific community which has proven that vaccines do not cause autism. This could also lead to a removal of state's requirements for vaccines to attend public schools. A legitimate crusade could ensue and create a large wave of uneducated parents who are more afraid of their child developing autism than dying of a preventable disease.