Health

Congressman-Elect Says He’s Worried Vaccines May Cause Autism. He’s Also A Doctor

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Grace Carr Reporter
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Republican Rep.-elect Mark Green alleged Tuesday that vaccines may cause autism, rejecting data from the Centers for Disease Control maintaining that a relationship between the two does not exist.

“[T]here is some concern that the rise in autism is the result of the preservatives that are in our vaccines,” Green said at a town hall Tuesday night in Tennessee, the Nashville Tennessean reported. He added that he would push the CDC to release data on vaccines linking to autism.

The CDC has “fraudulently managed” the data between vaccines and autism, the incoming Tennessee congressman also charged, according to the Tennessean.

“As a physician, I can make that argument and I can look at it academically and make the argument against the CDC, if they really want to engage me on it,” Green said.

Green is a physician and a veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne Division.

The CDC maintains that there is no relationship between vaccinations and autism.

“Many studies have looked at whether there is a relationship between vaccines and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with ASD,” the CDC wrote on a research page updated April 26.

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Other major medical organizations say that a relationship between vaccines and autism does not exist.

“Claims that vaccines are linked to autism, or are unsafe when administered according to the recommended schedule, have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature,” two doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in January 2017.

“Delaying vaccines only leaves a child at risk of disease,” the doctors wrote.

Democratic New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney suffered politically during her June primary campaign after she claimed that vaccines cause autism. She also compared vaccines to cigarettes in 2012. (RELATED: This New Cancer Vaccine Requires No Chemotherapy)

The University of British Columbia (UBC) pulled a study linking vaccines to autism in October 2017 after a co-author of the report maintained that the data had been distorted.

“There appears to be some evidence that as vaccine numbers increase, rates of autism increase,” Green said.

“Parents should vaccinate their children, but more research definitely needs to be done,” Green also told the USA Today Network Wednesday.

The number of unvaccinated U.S. children under two years of age has quadrupled from 0.3 percent to 1.3 percent since 2001, the CDC reported in October.

Green will be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 3.

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