WASHINGTON – Viewers of the second Republican presidential debate heard inflated claims about Planned Parenthood abortion practices and the risks of vaccines, as well as a dubious assertion by Donald Trump that he wasn’t interested in establishing casinos in Florida back in Jeb Bush’s days as a candidate for governor.
Some of the claims in the debate Wednesday night and how they compare with the facts:
TRUMP: “I’m in favor of vaccines, do them over a longer period of time, same amount, but just in little sections and I think you’re going to see a big impact on autism.”
THE FACTS: Medical researchers have debunked claims that vaccines given to children can lead to autism and developmental disorders. The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, says vaccines are not free from adverse effects, “but most are very rare or very mild.” A study that drew a connection between autism and vaccines was retracted in 2010.
For all of that, Trump asserted that a child of one of his employees “went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”