Elon Musk wades into vaccine debate with ‘dangerous misinformation’

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has expressed his thoughts on the efficacy of vaccines – a debate reignited by US president Donald Trump and his associates - in a post to Twitter/X which has been slammed as “dangerous misinformation”.

Following his interview with author Dr Suzanne Humphries this week, podcaster Joe Rogan praised Dr Humphries’ “really great book” Dissolving Illusions, which – according to the description on Amazon – “shows that vaccines, antibiotics, and other medical interventions are not responsible for the increase in lifespan and the decline in mortality from infectious diseases”.

Yikes.

Except, an article published in The Lancet last year says vaccination “has averted 154 million deaths” since 1974, with the authors – from UK, USA, Switzerland, Australia and South Africa – estimating that vaccines account for “40 per cent of the observed decline in global infant mortality”.

Musk shared his opinion on vaccines on Thursday, quoting Rogan’s tweet and adding: “If forced to choose between greatly improved sanitation and vaccines, sanitation matters much more.

“But vaccines, essentially training your immune system for battle, do work well for addressing many diseases.”

The Doge boss has since been criticised for presenting the issue as an either/or between vaccines and sanitation, with one Twitter/X user comparing it to ‘choosing between steering and brakes’:

Infectious diseases doctor Neil Stone also stressed that “vaccines AND sanitation are important”:

Meanwhile another user slammed Musk’s tweet as “dangerous misinformation dressed up as contrarian genius”:

All of this comes as Trump’s administration – of which Musk is a senior adviser – looks to investigate the disproven ‘link’ between autism and vaccination, with The New York Times reporting that “discredited vaccine sceptic” David Geier has been hired by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to look into this debunked theory.

And as a reminder, the HHS is headed up by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who in an interview with Jesse Watters of Fox News back in 2023 said he does “believe autism comes from vaccines”.

RFK Jr is also the former chair of the anti-vax organisation Children’s Health Defense, and in that same year penned a letter to the prime minister of Samoa questioning the efficacy of vaccines.

He said it was “critical” that the state’s health ministry determine if an outbreak of measles “was caused by inadequate vaccine coverage or alternatively, by a defective vaccine”.

Why not read…

• RFK Jr’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda slammed in ‘terrific’ takedown
• Did JD Vance really criticise Elon Musk for making him ‘look bad’ in ‘leaked’ audio?

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