Rep.-elect Mark Green (R-TN), a physician, is walking back his statement about vaccinations possibly causing autism after sharp backlash, according to a Wednesday night Washington Post report.
Green made a comment at a town hall this week that he would get the “real data” on vaccines, suggesting that some of it had been “fraudulently managed.”
He tried to soften that on Wednesday. “I want to reiterate my wife and I vaccinated our children, and we believe, and advise others they should have their children vaccinated,” he said in a statement.
The idea that vaccines cause autism is patently false and has caused the preventable deaths of children nationwide.
However, this isn’t the first time Green has stirred up controversy — per the Post, he was intended to be President Donald Trump’s Army secretary nominee until his inflammatory comments about Islam, LGBTQ issues and evolution took him out of the running.