Philanthropist Melinda Gates criticized Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's statements about vaccines. She called Trump's assertions that childhood vaccinations can lead to autism, "misinformed" and "ridiculous".
In several statements, Trump has claimed that there's a correlation between vaccines and the developmental disorder autism. This claim is based on a discredited 1998 study by a British doctor. However, according to The New York Times, the doctor lost his practice license. This claim is not supported by the mainstream medical community and the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). No evidence that a link between autism and vaccines was found by researchers.
According to The Huffington Post, Gates explained during the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, why Trump's statements on vaccines are wrong. She declared that this is a misinformed statement since, based on many studies now, it is clear that vaccinations cannot lead to autism.
Gates added that without vaccinations we wouldn't have in the United States a healthy population of children and people around the world need more access for these vaccines. She said that Trump's statements seem ridiculous to her and people need to be truly informed. According to Gates, the job of a presidential candidate is to properly educate people with their electoral platform but we lost track of this goal with the current elections.
A representative for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation declared after the interview of Melinda Gates for Huffington Post that her comments reflect her frustration with misinformation about the efficacy and safety or vaccines. However, the group does not take a position on specific candidates or political parties.
One of the goals of the foundation has been expanding the accessibility of vaccines throughout the developing world. has been one of the goals of the foundation. Bill and Melisa Gates Foundation provided $2.5 billion to a coalition of government leaders and health experts called the GAVI Alliance.
