In a break from tradition, President Trump just said something that most people around the planet would agree with.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday, April 26, Trump gave a message to parents regarding what they should they be doing for their kids in the wake of the recent measles outbreaks in the US.
Cases of measles in the US are currently at an all-time high, and the primary cause is the rise of the anti-vaxx movement.
Trump has previously stuck up for the anti-vaxxers, and infamously tweeted a few years ago how he believed vaccines are linked to autism.
However, separate studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among other, have shown that the MMR vaccine does not increase the risk of autism in healthy children, nor in children considered ‘at risk’ of autism.
Cases of measles in the US have now surpassed the highest number on record since the disease was declared eliminated in the country in 2000, CNN reports.
A report from the CDC recently put the figure of individual cases at 626 across 22 states this year alone, while further analyses has put the statistic at 695 cases.
Trump has now seemingly undergone a U-turn in his stance towards vaccinations.
When asked what his message to parents would be, Trump told CNN:
They have to get the shots. The vaccinations are so important. This is really going around now. They have to get their shots.
In 2014, Trump claimed vaccines cause autism, while a year later in his campaign, he called for smaller doses over longer periods of time.
In a statement from the CDC, published last week, director Robert Redfield said:
This current outbreak is deeply troubling and I call upon all healthcare providers to assure patients about the efficacy and safety of the measles vaccine.
And, I encourage all Americans to adhere to CDC vaccine guidelines in order to protect themselves, their families, and their communities from measles and other vaccine preventable diseases. We must work together as a Nation to eliminate this disease once and for all.
A recent report from UNICEF, via CNN, revealed that 2.5 million children in the US, and 169 million children worldwide, did not receive an MMR vaccination between 2010 and 2017 – roughly 20 million a year.
The report showed this was primarily down to complacency and fear of vaccines.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.