Donald Trump transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick questioned the safety of vaccines while speaking with CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday night.
“Vaccines are safe,” Collins said, while talking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s self-reported possibility of being “promised” by the former president to head the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture if Trump wins the 2024 election.
“Why do you think vaccines are safe,” Lutnick shot back, adding, “there’s no product liability anymore.” Collins responded, “Because they’re proven … kids get them and they’re fine,” prompting Lutnick to ask, “why do you think they’re fine?”
According to CNN, Kennedy said during a livestream event on Monday that what Trump “has promised me is—is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its subagencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is—which, you know, is key to making America healthy.”
Lutnick also claimed that both he and Collins “know so many more people” now that have autism versus when they were younger. Collins quickly asserted that “vaccines don’t cause autism,” pointing to Kennedy also peddling that falsehood, “which is why people are concerned that he could get a job like HHS.”
This is a developing story and will be updated with additional information.
Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump 2024 transition team, is pictured speaking at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 27. Lutnick questioned the use of vaccines while speaking on CNN Wednesday night. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
