President-elect Donald Trump says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will investigate the supposed link between autism and childhood vaccines.
"When you look at some of the problems, when you look at what's going on with disease and sickness in our country, something's wrong," Trump said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
Asked by journalist Kristen Welker if he was referring to autism, Trump responded: "I think somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it."
"Autism was almost nonexistent. It was, you know, 1 out of 100,000. And now it's close to one out of 100 … that's a pretty bad number," Trump said, adding he was "open to anything" when asked whether Kennedy would look into it.
"I mean, something is going on. I don't know if it's vaccines. Maybe it's chlorine in the water, right? You know, people are looking at a lot of different things," he added.
Kennedy, Trump's pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has promoted claims about vaccines that contradict the consensus of scientists.
Autism diagnoses have been rising, with 1 in 36 children now diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2000, 1 in 150 were diagnosed.
When asked if whether he "wanted to see childhood vaccines eliminated," Trump responded: "If they're dangerous for the children."
"I'm not against vaccines. The polio vaccine is the greatest thing," Trump said. "If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they're going to have to work real hard to convince me. I think vaccines are — certain vaccines — are incredible. But maybe some aren't. And if they aren't, we have to find out."